Such a beautiful story!! Kavita and Jasu are a poor but loving couple living in the rural town of Dhanau, India. In a society that favors boys and considers girls as a burden, Kavita has to give up her daughter to an orphanage, to protect her life. Meanwhile another couple from America, Somer and Krishnan can’t have a baby and decide to adopt, connecting the lives of these two very different couples separated by thousand of miles. And thus begins this really touching tale of their lives and the More...

SPOILERS

This novel proudly boasts a #1 Canadian Bestseller sticker.
I personally can't understand why.

In 1984, an Indian woman named Kavita gives birth to a baby girl. Fearful that her husband, Jasu, will dispose of this baby the same way he did to their first daughter, Kavita and her sister deliver this baby to an orphanage in Bombay, but tell Jasu that the baby died in the night. A year later Somer and Krishnan Thakker, an American-Indian couple, adopt the baby and bring her home to California More...

Watching so many Bollywood hits, I never saw India as I saw her through the eyes of the writer. She has the ability to take you into her world in such a captivating way; making you see all the negatives and the positives of her Homeland, and finally you have nothing but fall in love with this rich and contradicting country.
Shilpi Gowda managed to discuss fatal subjects through her book in a smooth and endearing way. With her rich characters she goes through Poverty, Identity, Motherhood, Traditi More...

Meh. Not a bad story, but too superficially rendered for my taste.

Kavita, a poor village woman, has just given birth to an infant daughter she names Usha. Terrified that her husband will murder the daughter because she's a girl, she journeys to Mumbai to place Usha in an orphanage. Meanwhile, Somer and Krishnan, a California couple struggling with infertility, decide to adopt an Indian orphan and end up with Usha. The book follows the twists and turns in these characters' lives as Kavita and her More...

Wonderful book! If this is the author's first novel, I can't wait to read her second! I won the book through the First Reads giveaway here at Goodreads, and as soon as I did, I went to the authors website and read the first few pages in the preview! After just the first chapter, I was hooked!
The story is centered around the 'secret daughter' Asha/Usha. She is born the 2nd daughter of Kavita, an Indian woman who lost her 1st daughter immediately after birth to infanticide. She is determined th More...

For most of the book I thought I would give it a three but it has been a long time since I cried at the end of the book.

The struggle for women's rights in India: infanticide of baby girls, dowry deaths, bride burning, sex selective abortions.

Bride-burning is a form of domestic violence practiced in India .It is not the same as ancient and long abolished (formally abolished in 1829) custom of Sati, where widowed women were forcefully placed on a burning pyre of the dead husband (usually a man in More...

This is a story that beautifully and creatively tackles many controversial issues. Between Somer and Krishnan, we have an interracial marriage. (Issue one) Krishnan, an Indian man and Somer, a caucasian woman, think nothing of the difference in their cultures until a trip to India shows Somer the world from which Krishnan comes from. She does a double take and wonders how well she really knows her husband.

Issue two: motherhood. Somer wants to have a baby so bad but her body does not agree with More...

This book was the best in this month honestly, I loved how the Author started the story and the end is just Ahhh.
This book was one of the favorite. I loved loved loved it. Maybe I'll re-read it in the future after I forget the whole story.
Highly recommend.

In India, Kavita gives birth to a girl and her sister helps her to spirit the baby away, to avoid the fate the first one suffered. Luckily, her third child is the cherished son that everyone hoped for.

In California, Somer and Krishnan are unable to conceive and finally decide to adopt. They visit Krishnan’s indian family and finalize the adoption of a baby girl named Asha, from an orphanage in Mumbai.

Asha’s curiosity about her heritage and her country of birth eventually lead her back to India a More...

What a wonderful story! This is honestly one of the best novels I have read in awhile.

SECRET DAUGHTER is a book about two very different cultures that are interwoven by the event of an adoption of a little Indian girl. Asha was unfortunately born a girl, which in the rural areas of India is not a favourable outcome when you are poor. Boys are the favoured sex when you can not afford the luxury of many mouths to feed. Boys are seen as being the answer to helping a family strive for a more prosper More...

i found this story interesting. there are two families that we follow. one family - kavita, jasu and their son vijay - live in mumbai. when kavita gives birth to two girls before vijay, one is taken away by her husband jasu the moment the baby is declared a girl and the other is put into an orphanage. kavita lives her life mourning both losses.

drs. krishnan and somer adopt asha from a mumbai orphange. this asha is kavita's baby.

the story takes place over a course of twenty years or so and we f More...

This was a bittersweet book that follows and interweaves two mothers and their daughter. What Gowda does well is tell a thought-provoking, loving tale from the Indian women's perspective. The only reason I did not give it a full 5 stars is because some of the voices were a bit weak, most notably Somer, the American mother. (So instead if there were 4.5 stars I would give it that).

In some other reviews I have seen, there was note that the male voice is very weak but to me that did not matter as More...

Loved this book.

I loved the contrast between cultures and the contrast between the male and female dynamics within those cultures. So much of the story is heartbreaking, due to circumstances beyond the characters' control: birth place, cultural norms, reproductive health issues. But there are interpersonal conflicts that are within their control. I could put myself in each of the characters' shoes and see the reasons for their actions from their points of view.

I was a little bit disappointed in More...

Loved book. Couldn't put it down. Story of girl adopted from India, and her family in America and her birth family in India

In der drückenden Schwüle bringt die indische Bäuerin Kavita vollkommen allein ein Kind zur Welt und zu ihrem größten Entsetzen haben die Götter ihre Wünsche nicht erhört: Denn abermals haben sie ihr ein Mädchen beschert. Aus Angst, die Kleine würde dasselbe Schicksal ereilen wie ihre Schwester – der Tod durch die Hand eines Angehörigen –, bringt Kavita sie schweren Herzens in ein Waisenhaus, welches ihre einzige Überlebenschance ist.
Fast zeitgleich erfährt das junge Ärztepaar Somer und Kris, da More...

Secret Daughter by Shilpi Somaya Gowda

The author is Indian. Her parents migrated to Canada from Mumbai. This novel was a New York Bestseller for her and also an international bestseller. She spent a summer as a volunteer in an Indian orphanage. This story is of an Indian girl adopted by an Indian father and white mother (both doctors) living in the United States, covers what it is like to be adopted and provides information about girls born in India. Ashe travels to India and spends time with h More...

While the synopsis states that the story is about the bond of motherhood, Secret Daughter is also a captivating look at life in India. In fact, of the two mothers, Kavita is the one who is the most sympathetic and leads the most intriguing lifestyle, if only because she leads a harsh life that is extremely foreign to those readers who are only familiar with the western world. The cultural differences, including the unusual birth rate statistics, are exposed in an intriguing and entirely realisti More...

A poor woman in rural India gives her newborn daughter to an orphanage to prevent her husband from killing the baby (yet again - he killed their first daughter), since he only wants a son and says they can't afford girls. The girl gets adopted by American parents but always wonders about her origins. Both the girl and the birth mother spend their whole lives wondering about each other, despite ending up having full lives.

There's a lot here about nature vs. nurture and how much your past affects More...

Amazing book about life in India, adoption, and a mother's love. This book follows two women—Kavita and Somer (from 1984 to the present). Kavita is an Indian woman whose husband goes into a rage when she gives birth to a daughter. He claims they can’t afford a daughter (because of the dowry required to marry them when they are older). He takes the child away and has it killed. Heartbroken, when she becomes pregnant again, Kavita is determined that Jasu, her husband won’t take another daughter aw More...

Asha Thakkar was born in India where she lived in an orphanage for a year before being adopted by an American couple, Somer and Kris Thakkar, who would take her back to America and raise her in California. She was aware of looking different than the other kids she went to school with but that didn't bother her much - her father, also from India, looked a lot like her. As she grew into her late teens she felt herself growing farther away from her mother until the distance became, it seemed to Ash More...

Great book... In a tiny hut in rural India, Kavita gives birth to Asha. Unable to afford the ''luxury'' of raising a daughter, her husband forces Kavita to give the baby up--a decision that will haunt them both for the rest of their lives.
Halfway around the globe, Somer, an American doctor, decides to adopt a child after making the wrenching discovery that she will never have one of her own. When her husband Krishnan shows her a photo of baby Asha sent to him from a Mumbai orphanage, she falls i More...

This is an interesting book from a number of angles. Good insight into East Indian culture, especially interesting to a Westerner. Intriguing story, with multiple characters, all living out their lives in the light of their common and particular East Indian cultural world views, often conflicted, but the value of family relationships runs a steady thread throughout. I like that. We Westerners, steeped as we are in the importance of the individual, have much to learn from cultures where family is More...

This book is the typical story we have seen so many times--an adopted daughter seeking to find her birth mother. But this book is not so typical It is beautifully written. It alternates between Somer's story in San Francisco and Navita's story in India.
When Navita gives birth to yet another girl, she knows she must keep her from her husband Jasu. So she takes the baby, Usha to an orphanage. Usha, who is renamed Asha eventually is adopted by Somer and her husband Krishnan who was born and raise More...

Wow! I was all over the place with this book, at points I really hated it and in others it amazed me. It was well written, I had a little background about the slums of Mumbai as I have just finished Beyond the Beautiful Forevers. This book's main character is an Indian girl adopted by a US couple from an Indian orphanage. Asha is in the orphanage because the poor in India could not afford to have girls. This hit close to home, as my daughter is adopted from an orphanage in China as a result of t More...

The Secret Daughter came heavily recommended and I have to say, I was definitely not disappointed.

Kavita, a woman in a village gives birth to a daughter. Rather than let her die, she fights against odds and comes to Bombay to drop her off in an orphanage. Her previous baby had been killed as soon as she was born, and Kavita did not want to take any chances.

Another couple from America, an Indian man married to an American woman, Somer, long for a baby. When they find out that they can never becom More...

This is a story about mothers; the sacrifices made, the worries, the joys, and the art of allowing our children to leave us. I loved the begining, I loved the end - but there were places in the middle that I felt like slapping Somer; she was so selfish and whiny!! I loved Kavita's character, she embodied a woman who loved her husband (I will never understand how she loved him after what he did), had faith in him, and built him up into the man he became because of her patience and faith. Compared More...

Originally Reviewed at Novel Escapes

Every once in a while I want to read something other than chick lit and am always thrilled when I randomly pick up something wonderful. Secret Daughter wasn’t recommended to us by anyone, rather, I liked the premise of the story, loved the cover and discovered while reading it that I loved the book as well! This beautiful story hooked me from the beginning and I’ve thought about long since finishing. It would make a wonderful Mother’s Day gift for any of you s More...

kim rated it and I liked what she said.
One can see how difficult life must be for some people. The happening chance of being born in one part of the world as compared to another.

Wonderful book! If this is the author's first novel, I can't wait to read her second! I won the book through the First Reads giveaway here at Goodreads, and as soon as I did, I went to the authors website and read the first few pages in the preview! After just the first chapter, I was hooked!
The story is centered around More...

Canadian first-time author Shilpi Somaya Gowda has written a compelling story that had me from the beginning. Born in Toronto, Canada, to parents from Bombay, India, she had insight and good understanding of both cultures. She mostly told the story from the perspective of three women – the adopted daughter, the adoptive mother and the birth mother. It was involved and interesting and hard to put down once I started reading.

I don’t want to give away too much and spoil it for you, but for anyone w More...

The thought of giving a daughter up for adoption is difficult; making the decision, unimaginable. In India, where daughters have no worth, Kavita makes an incredible decision to give her daughter up for adoption in hopes that she will have a good life. Somer who is unable to have children also makes a difficult decison to adopt. These two mothers though thousands of miles away from each other, make life changing decisions about a daughter--the same daughter, Usha/Asha. The heart-break and eventu More...