Courage. Strength. Resilience. These are all words we are hearing more and more these days, but what they mean can look so different in different circumstances. Badani seems to instinctively know that and in this quiet but powerful book, she gives us many different examples of what it means to be courageous, strong and resilient.

After her third miscarriage, Jaya assumes that she and her husband will just try again, but this time her husband is reluctant and questions whether having a child is really all that important.  Shocked and devastated by his apparent indifference, and the fault lines it reveals about their  marriage, Jaya, persuades her editor to let her do a story about her family history and runs away to India.

Once Jaya arrives in the small village where her grandmother, Amisha lived, she is greeted by Amisha’s servant Ravi and is taken to the small home where her grandmother lived. Initially, Jaya is charmed by village life, with its simplicity. values and traditions but as Ravi begins to tell stories of her grandmother and the complicated and difficult life she led, Jaya realizes that there is a dark side to village life which caused her grandmother to make difficult choices which caused the deep rift and alienation between Jaya’s mother and her grandmother.

As Ravi tells the story of her grandmother, Jaya begins to realize that courage, strength and resilience can come in many different forms, and begins to understand that she too, must find those characteristics within herself and move forward in he own life.

Brenda’s Rating: ****(4 Out of 5 Stars)

Recommend this book to: Lauren, Marian, Sharon and Keith

Book Study Worthy? Yes

Read in ebook format.