Blog tour: Independence

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Welcome to the blog tour for Independence by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni!

More about the book…

India, 1947. In a rural village in Bengal live three sisters, daughters of a well-respected doctor.

Priya: intelligent and idealistic, resolved to follow in her father’s footsteps and become a doctor, though society frowns on it.

Deepa: the beauty, determined to make a marriage that will bring her family joy and status.

Jamini: devout, sharp-eyed, and a talented quiltmaker, with deeper passions than she reveals.

Theirs is a home of love and safety, a refuge from the violent events taking shape in the nation. Then their father is killed during a riot, and even their neighbours turn against them, bringing the events of their country closer to home.

As Priya determinedly pursues her career goal, Deepa falls deeply in love with a Muslim, causing her to break with her family. And Jamini attempts to hold her family together, even as she secretly longs for her sister’s fiancé.

When the partition of India is officially decided, a drastic—and dangerous—change is in the air. India is now for Hindus, Pakistan for Muslims. The sisters find themselves separated from one another, each on different paths. They fear for what will happen to not just themselves, but each other.

Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni outdoes herself with this deeply moving story of sisterhood and friendship, painting an account of India’s independence simultaneously exhilarating and devastating, that will make any reader—new or old—a devoted fan.

More about the author…

Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni is an award-winning and bestselling author, activist, and professor.

Her work has been published in over fifty magazines, including The Atlantic and The New Yorker, and included in The Best American Short Stories and The O. Henry Prize Stories.

Her books have been translated into twenty-nine languages, including Dutch, Hebrew, Bengali, Russian, and Japanese.

Several have been used for campus-wide reads and made into films and plays.

She teaches at the University of Houston.

My impressions…

If you know me a little, you already know that I love India and I will read pretty much anything that is set in the country. It is of course preferable if that anything turns out to be a sweeping historical novel full of emotion. Like this one! There are a lot of characters to keep up with but, for me, that was part of its beauty as it reminded me of the brilliant, crowded chaos I experienced during my travels! I felt a deep connection with the three sisters and I had their happiness at heart. This is a book I will be thinking about for a while.

Three words to describe it. Epic. Engaging. Fascinating.

Do I like the cover? I adore it, and it’s what first attracted me to the book.

Have I read any other books by the same author? No, but I’m running to catch up.

 

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