The novel jumps between the story of Indian Amisha's story during the time of British rule in India, being retold by her beloved servant, Ravi, and the more current story of Jaya, Amisha's American granddaughter. Jaya has just suffered her third miscarriage. Her mother, Lena, had just received a letter that her father in India was ailing and she should come soon. Lena refuses to go. Jaya needs an escape so she goes to India instead.
Amisha's story is typical. The expectations of marriage and women in the mid 20th century India, relations between Indian and British towards the end of British rule, the place of the caste system. Jay's story is pretty typical, too. Modern woman, career choices, family choices, family relationships. In both cases, pretty predictable. The real story was the intersection of these two stories. But even that was pretty predicable.
Jaya's story takes place in the summer of 2000. She's a journalist and a blogger. It is important that Jaya is a writer. It's a connection to Amisha who loved to tell stories and to write. More than that was just not necessary. A few of her blog posts were included in the book and they added nothing to the story. Plus, from my recollection, blogs weren't quite mainstream in 2000 and I can't imagine reading something like her blogs at that time.
It was more of a romance than women's fiction within the genre of historical fiction. It wasn't a bad book. It just wasn't a great book.
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