Blog tour: Honor

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Welcome to the blog tour for Honor by Thrity Umrigar!

More about the book…

Indian American journalist Smita has returned to India to cover a story, but reluctantly: long ago she and her family left the country with no intention of ever coming back. As she follows the case of Meena – a Hindu woman attacked by members of her own village and her own family for marrying a Muslim man –Smita comes face to face with a society where tradition carries more weight than one’s own heart, and a story that threatens to unearth the painful secrets of Smita’s own past.

While Meena’s fate hangs in the balance, Smita tries in every way she can to right the scales. She also finds herself increasingly drawn to Mohan, an Indian man she meets while on assignment. But the dual love stories of Honor are as different as the cultures of Meena and Smita themselves: Smita realizes she has the freedom to enter into a casual affair, knowing she can decide later how much it means to her.

In this tender and evocative novel about love, hope, familial devotion, betrayal and sacrifice, Thrity Umrigar shows us two courageous women trying to navigate how to be true to their homelands and themselves at the same time.

More about the author…

Thrity Umrigar is the bestselling author of The Space Between Us, which was a finalist for the PEN/Beyond Margins Award, as well as six other novels, a memoir, and three picture books. Her books have been translated into several languages and published in over fifteen countries. She is the winner of a Lambda Literary Award and the Seth Rosenberg Prize and is a Distinguished Professor of English at Case Western Reserve University.

My impressions…

India is a country that has fascinated me for years and I take any opportunity to read a book that takes me there. Honor is one such book. The complexity of Indian life and culture has many layers and, through the stories of Meena and Smita, we start to uncover some of them. It’s a difficult read but most definitely worth the heartache.

Three words to describe it. Evocative. Bittersweet. Compelling.

Do I like the cover? Yes, I love its bold colours.

Have I read any other books by the same author? No, not yet. There’s something to look forward to!

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