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Karma

by Cathy Ostlere (Goodreads Author)

3.83 of 5 stars 3.83 · rating details · 728 ratings · 176 reviews

On October 31, 1984, Indira Gandhi is gunned down by two Sikh bodyguards. The murder sparks riots in Delhi and for three days Sikh families are targeted and killed in retribution for the Prime Minister’s death. It is into this chaos that sixteen-year-old Maya and her Sikh father, Amar, arrive from their home in Canada. India’s political instability is the backdrop and cata...more

Hardcover, 528 pages

Published March 31st 2011 by Razorbill (first published March 1st 2011)

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The Verse Challenge

18th out of 93 books — 26 voters

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27th out of 82 books — 16 voters

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Community Reviews

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Aug 18, 2011 Deanna rated it 4 of 5 stars

Verse novel, young adult, culture, historical fiction

I enjoy learning about countries and cultures through fiction. I am interested in finding out more about the author, Ostlere. Is she from Indian background and what kind of research did she complete to write this novel? Set in 1984 when India's prime minister is killed and religious genocides occur.

Maya, fifteen years old, is growing up in Canada where her parents immigrated to from India. Her father is Sikh and her mother is Hindu--completely...more

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Jul 19, 2011 Terri rated it 5 of 5 stars

I have read some great multicultural pieces this summer that I can't wait to booktalk in the fall! "Karma," by Cathy Ostlere, is one such novel. The piece takes place in India from late October 1984 through late December 1984 with flashbacks to earlier in the main character's life. If you are familiar with your history, you know that on October 31, 1984, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was assassinated in her garden by two of her Sykh bodyguards as revenge for the attack on the Sykh's holy "Golden...more I have read some great multicultural pieces this summer that I can't wait to booktalk in the fall! "Karma," by Cathy Ostlere, is one such novel. The piece takes place in India from late October 1984 through late December 1984 with flashbacks to earlier in the main character's life. If you are familiar with your history, you know that on October 31, 1984, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was assassinated in her garden by two of her Sykh bodyguards as revenge for the attack on the Sykh's holy "Golden Temple." This in turn led to riots where many (the numbers are disputed) Sykhs were brutally murdered by Hindus to avenge Gandhi's death. By December of that year, Sykhs and Hindu's were denying that anything had happened. As the main character says on page 397, "...we are a nation with a long history and short memories. We are a nation accustomed to pain."

In "Karma," just prior to Gandhi's assassination, fifteen year-old Maya/Jiva has just suffered the tragic loss of her Hindu mother, Matu. Maya, who is half Hindu and half Sikh, was born and raised in Elsinore, Canada. Her parents story is very much a "Romeo and Juliet" story, a recurring theme throughout the novel. Their marriage (of a Hindu to a Sykh) was not approved by either of their families. Thus, after having been born and raised in India, the two sought refuge in Canada where they did not fit in either. Matu's unhappiness grew over the years, and her desire to go home was discouraged by Bapu. With no job, no Indian community members with whom to find friendship, Matu was slowly driven mad. After her death, as "Karma" begins, Bapu and Maya bring Matu's ashes back to India, where Bapu seeks to deal with his guilt and to honor Matu - in ways Maya is not at first aware of. Soon after they arrive in New Dehli, Gandhi is murdered. Bapu, who is easily identifiable as a Sykh, must cut off his hair and give up his turban (which is like betraying his faith and denying everything about himself) in order to survive. When he goes out to find help and doesn't return, Maya is left to fend for herself. She too cuts off her hair and dresses as a boy. She flees to the train staiton, boards a train to an unknown destination, and witnesses brutality that forever changes her life and who she is. As a result of what she sees, she becomes mute and is taken in by the doctor, Parvrati, to whom she is brought after her collapse in a crowd. Parvati sends her to live with her Hindu family (Amma, Barindra, and the seventeen year old son they took in at age six, Sandeep). Parvati makes Sandeep promise to watch over Maya and to get her to talk and reveal her true identity and her story. Thus begins a great adventure, and eventually another "Romeo and Juliet" like relationship.

"Karma" is stunning in its writing. Presented as a 517 page novel-in-verse, it reads very quickly. The story is told in a first person journal format by first Maya and then Sandeep, whose voices are both distinct and memorable. Filled with vivid imagery, Ostlere is able to bring the sights, the smells, the colors, the emotions, and the sounds that surround Maya and Sandeep to life. It is in this way that the reader gets a real sense of the time and the place. For an American teen this is a beautiful introduction to India, and its history and cultures. Fabulous writing! Some reviews that I have read have mentioned that "Karma" could be an awards contender for the 2012 season. I would have to agree.

There is a wealth of thematic material here for thought, discussion, and writing. On page 390-91 Maya says, "Too dark to be Canadian. Too tall for a girl. Too pretty for a boy. I can speak three languages. English. Hindi. Punjabi. (And sometimes French.} But who am I? Always the foreigner. Hiding in her skin." Though Maya is literally a foreigner, most teens can identify with feeling like the foreigner, the odd one, the only one, etc. Another important theme found in "Karma" is that of forgiveness (page 489), "The dead. This is what they try to tell us. Everything can be forgiven. Everyone." On page 491. Maya talks of second chances: "Reincarnation. Another chance. Everyone deserves a second chance, don't you think?" In regards to racism, Bapu says on page 492: "Ignore them...Racism isn't always hatred. Sometimes it's just confusion and fear. It's their own hearts, they're not sure about. Not ours." Other significant themes include: shame, retribution, war, religious fanaticism, the will to live, suffering, suicide, ignorance, not fitting in, love, loss, grief, saying good-bye, hope, tradition, etc. Another interesting discussion would be on why the book is named "Karma."

My only beef about the book is the cover. While it is really beautiful, the bright pink and yellow cover will make it a book primarily for girls - and there is so much here for any teen! Even if I got a teen boy to take a look at the book, through booktalking, it is doubtful that most boys would be willing to carry around this gigantic pink book! So sad...

Otherwise, this is a stunning debut young adult novel by Cathy Ostlere! Highly recommended! (less)

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Apr 05, 2011 Marcie rated it 5 of 5 stars

Karma is defined as action, seen as bringing upon oneself inevitable results, good or bad, either in this life or in reincarnation. This is the main theme woven throughout this novel. The main part of this story takes place during the riots that broke out after Indria Gahndi is gunned down in 1984. Maya is the main character in this novel. She writes down the unfolding of these horrific events in her diary. The riots are between the Hindus and Sikh. The turmoil between these two religious groups...more

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Feb 28, 2013 Gabrielle rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: febuary-reads, historical-fiction

Karma isn't the average Indian girl. Her family having immigrated to Canada as a young girl, she was having trouble adjusting to their culture. She was always alienated, betrayed and hurt because of being different. A few days after her mother's tragic suicide, he father and her take a trip to her parents' home country where Sikhs and Hindi's argue over their races. Indira Gandhi is died. This is Karma's(A half Sikh and a half Hindi girl) story of the dangers of this war.

I picked up this book be...more

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Feb 20, 2013 Me rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: forest-of-reading

It's a very interesting book. The emotions, characters, and plot are all very unique and interesting. This book is written in prose, something I'm unsure of. One POV, Maya, had some very interesting poems. The ones that were the most interesting were those that were call and effect across the page. However in Maya's POV their were a few chapters that were basically sentence that were awkwardly entered, and not so pretty. The other POV, Sandeep, had no flowery poetry. This was also written in pro...more

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Feb 22, 2012 Arthur Pengerbil rated it 5 of 5 stars

Reading Level: Grades 7+

The year is 1984. Fifteen year old Maya packs a suitcase for a trip to India with her father. They are going to lay Maya's recently deceased Hindu mother to rest. Not long after they arrive, however, tumultuous religious differences between the Sikhs and Hindus explode into violence when prime minister Indira Gandhi is assassinated.

Maya and her father, a Sikh, are caught in the middle of the clash and separated when their hotel is attacked. Afraid for her safety because o...more

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Feb 09, 2012 Teena in Toronto rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: canadian

I was kind of leery when I read that this was written in "free verse poems" but I gave it a chance and I'm glad I did. Nothing rhymed (yay!) and basically it was short chunky paragraphs which I didn't notice after a while.

It was an interesting story that spans six weeks. When Maya's mother commits suicide, she and her dad take the ashes to India (they live in Canada). They get separated during the riots. The first part of the story is voiced by Maya, the next part is voiced by Sandeep and the la...more

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Oct 31, 2011 Elizabeth rated it 4 of 5 stars

First of all, adored the style of the book. It is written as a series of diary entries. Also, loved the hopeful ending which reflected the ability of love to surpass so many challenges. This book has tough content. Maya is visiting New Delhi, India, with her father. They are taking the ashes of her mother there. Her mother died tragically and Maya is coming to terms with that. She was raised in Canada so she has trepidations about this trip. They are well-founded since shortly after reaching Ind...more

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Aug 29, 2011 PC rated it 4 of 5 stars

It's a good thing that I didn't realize this was a "novel in verse" until I brought the book home from the library, because then I almost certainly would have passed it over, convinced that a book with a title like "Karma," a Bollywood-ish cover, and the additional supposed gimmick of being a giant poem was bound to be awful.

And it could have been....but it wasn't.

What saves this book is everything contained within the covers - the writing, the story, the characters, and the alternating POVs.

Th...more It's a good thing that I didn't realize this was a "novel in verse" until I brought the book home from the library, because then I almost certainly would have passed it over, convinced that a book with a title like "Karma," a Bollywood-ish cover, and the additional supposed gimmick of being a giant poem was bound to be awful.

And it could have been....but it wasn't.

What saves this book is everything contained within the covers - the writing, the story, the characters, and the alternating POVs.

The writing: beautiful, with every word chosen with such deliberate care. Each page is a separate poem for the most part, yet they read like mini-chapters. As I was reading I wondered if the effect would have been the same if Ostlere had simply written it as a novel...and thank goodness she didn't, because this end result is truly exquisite.

The story: engaging on all levels, with conflict coming from many directions, the most urgent being the Hindu and Sikh riots which erupted after Indira Gandhi was assassinated. You don't need to know too much about this event - or about Indian religion or culture in general - because the author does such a wonderful job of outlining it all for you.

The characters and POV: The story revolves around Maya/Jiva, who becomes lost in the city during the riots and loses her voice after a traumatic experience; and Sandeep, the boy who becomes her caretaker and “voice” as Maya works through her trauma. The POV shifts between the two are necessary to keep the book from becoming too melancholy on Maya’s side and too irreverent on Sandeep’s, but the balance struck by both really flesh out the story and bring both humanity and humor in explaining a series of events that stained India’s history.

I found this book on NPR's list of Teen/YA picks, but I think pigeon-holing this gem as such would be an injustice. In fact, if I ever teach literature again, I would definitely add this to my students’ reading list. It’s impossible to finish this book and NOT want to talk about it.(less)

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Aug 15, 2011 Skedatt rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: young-adult

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Jun 24, 2011 Margo Tanenbaum rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: young-adult, india, 20th-century

I was immediately drawn into Cathy Ostlere's stunning debut novel, Karma, written in free verse and set in India during the turbulent period immediately after the assassination of Indira Gandhi in 1984. Her 15-year old heroine, Maya, a Canadian teenager who’s half-Hindu, and half-Sikh, is traveling with her grief-stricken father to India with the ashes of her mother and a new diary to record her thoughts. On the night they arrive, the prime minister is killed in her own garden by her Sikh guards...more I was immediately drawn into Cathy Ostlere's stunning debut novel, Karma, written in free verse and set in India during the turbulent period immediately after the assassination of Indira Gandhi in 1984. Her 15-year old heroine, Maya, a Canadian teenager who’s half-Hindu, and half-Sikh, is traveling with her grief-stricken father to India with the ashes of her mother and a new diary to record her thoughts. On the night they arrive, the prime minister is killed in her own garden by her Sikh guards, and In the turmoil and harrowing violence that erupt immediately after the assassination, Maya and her father are separated. With no time to think, Maya cuts off her hair and disguises herself as a boy, running to the train station to try to find her father. When he doesn’t arrive, she gets on a train anyway, not knowing exactly where she is headed in the chaos. On the train journey, she witnesses unimaginable horrors, and is so traumatized she is unable to speak.

Taken in by a kind doctor’s family, where no one knows who she is or where she comes from, Maya struggles to come back to life, with the help of Sandeep, an orphan boy who she’s just met. She has lost everything--but she will find love, open her heart, and recover her voice with Sandeep, who eventually takes her back to Dehli to try to find her father. While Maya is mute, Sandeep takes over the narration in the second half of the novel, giving the book two distinct voices. Toward the end of the novel, Maya resumes the narration.

This is a deeply romantic story of young love, passion, family, and trauma, where the evocative poetry serves to heighten the drama and suspense of the story. Because of the suspense of the story line, you will want to hurry along to find out what happens, but don’t forget to take the time to admire Ostlere’s elegant poetry, sometimes written in two columns. Asked often why the novel is written in free verse, she eloquently replies: “The best answer I have to this question is that Karma’s poetic form suits the emotional lives of Maya and Sandeep. Their feelings are intense, their insights into the world are sharp and critical, and their understanding of what it means to be human is fresh, ragged, not yet smoothed by maturity, not yet smoothed by conventional narrative. Poetry is the perfect medium for their age. The short sentence. The precise image. The outbursts of feeling. Maya and Sandeep invite the reader to look inside their diaries where they reveal an intimate world of secrets, confessions and longings, and where poetry is a fire.”

Although this book looks imposing at over 500 pages, it is actually a relatively quick read because of the free verse format, and like the books of YA authors Ellen Hopkins and Sonya Sones, would be a good recommendation for reluctant readers. With its exotic setting, it’s also a great fit with this year’s One World, Many Stories summer reading theme.

Ostlere’s website gives additional background on the genesis of this novel, which took root during her own travels in India in 1984, and the origin of the character of Maya, who is inspired by a young Indian girl she knew growing up in Canada, as well as some stunning photographs evoking the brilliant colors of India.(less)

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Jun 03, 2011 Cathy/The Crazy Bookworm rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: favorites

Karma was one of the most beautiful novels I have ever read. First off, look at the gorgeous cover(it is even prettier in person!) If the cover isn't enough to draw your attention, then open the first page, and read the first verse. You'll be hooked!

Cathy Ostlere penned such a compelling, magical novel. The words flowed flawlessly, jumping off the pages. It was lyrical and poetic. The book is written in Verse and in diary form. So it made it very easy to connect with the main character Maya. Wh...more

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Oct 07, 2011 Stephanie rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: bfya-2011

Okay, so who's bright idea was it to put this book on the BFYA list?

I mean, seriously, the only reasons I was able to finish this book was:
1. I really, really want to beat Robin the Page War and this is one of the longest books on the BFYA list.

2. I was told that this book was absolutely horrible and not worth the boatload of pages I'd gain to get closer to beating Robin in the Page War and so had the lowest expectations for this book. Which is actually kind of a good thing because when you have...more

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Sep 11, 2011 Pamela rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Elaine

Recommended to Pamela by: NY Times Book Review

Set over the handful of days preceding and following the assassination of Indira Gandhi, this book tells the story of Maya (her mother's name for her), her Hindi mother Leela, and her Sikh father Bapu. Written in verse, the book is Maya's (known to her father by her given name of Jiva) diary, a heart-felt memoir of a (so far) short Spanish of time in her fifteenth year. A favorite quote so far:

"For the last two minutes, the sonata beats out my breaths. The music despairs. The building madness--t...more

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Mar 14, 2011 AnQi rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: adventure, book-club-books, books-in-review, historical-fiction, poetry, recommended-young-adult-fiction, romance-romance-romance, young-adult

REVIEW FOR KARMA BY CATHY OSTLERE

Cathy Ostlere brings to life a moving and rich post World War II novel about a girl named Jiva who must struggle to find her father in the religiously divided country of India. Throughout the book, elements of romance, historical fiction, and a coming-of-age story are all woven into this novel that tells its tale through angelic and detailed prose.

Jiva, who's name means 'life', has always been different, even in her home country of India, where her ancestors a

...more

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Oct 01, 2011 Naeha rated it 4 of 5 stars

I heard about this book on NPR (http://www.npr.org/2011/08/09/1374561...) in a story about books for teens of all ages. I decided to read it because there aren't a lot of books about teenaged Indian girls and it takes place in the weeks immediately following Indira Gandhi's assassination.

I thought it was great! I was impressed that the novel appears to be written by a non-Indian, who really seems to understand the state of mind of Sikhs and Hindus in India in the mid 1980s. It is written from t...more

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Aug 14, 2011 Ofilia rated it 5 of 5 stars

This is an epic love story told in verse and it is absolutely amazing. Poetic, passionate, moving and sincere--it is 517 pages, but written in verse so it goes very fast. I couldn't put it down. I devoured it in 2 days. Maya is so well written. The way she is divided between cultures and religions creates this instant complexity to her character. Given the poetic format, character has to be established succinctly. And when Maya shuts down, her sorrow reaches through the verse in attempt to stran...more

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Apr 22, 2011 Christopher rated it 5 of 5 stars

It seems like all of young adult literature is being written in verse nowadays. This is, at least, the fifth book I've read this month written in verse, yet "Karma" is by far the best of the lot. Set against the backdrop of the assassination of Indira Gandhi and the riots between the Sikhs & Hindus that followed, "Karma" tells the story of Jiva/Maya, a Canadian-Indian girl forced to return to India with her father after the death of her mother. Both lyrical, haunting and romantic (many times...more

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Feb 11, 2013 Christina rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2013, college, family-issues, historical-fiction, history, poetry, romance, sj-library, teen-fiction, war, tragedy, review

Karma was one of those impulse reads that I picked up mainly for the pretty cover (isn’t that the reason for all impulse reads?). While I didn’t know what to expect from the book, I was pleasantly surprised in some aspects, not so much in others.

Karma is the story of Maya, a half-Hindu half-Sikh teenager, who is traveling to India with her father to spread the ashes of her recently deceased mother. The first night Maya and her father, whom she calls Bapu, arrive, the Prime Minister Indira Gandh...more

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Mar 08, 2013 Allison Saunders rated it 5 of 5 stars

The book that I read was Karma, it is written by Cathy Ostlere. The main character in this book is Maya, a young girl who is struggling with personal loss and struggling with two different cultures, Maya later learns acceptance and love. If I was Maya in this book, I think that it would be difficult to understand how each culture is and how their way of life is but it would also be difficult to deal with the loss of somebody you love like Maya did in this book because she lost her father later o...more

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Dec 01, 2011 Karin rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: young-adult-fiction, historical-fiction, india, multicultural, canada, canadians, mother-daughter-relationships, death-of-parent-or-parents, suicide, religion, violence, murder, father-daughter-relationships, hindu, sikh, religious-conflicts, depressing, marriage, forgiveness, forbidden-love, borrowed-from-the-library, books-in-verse

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Maya/Jiva is 15 years old when her mother (Mata) commits suicide. She and her father (Bapu) bring her mother’s ashes back to India to be scattered, but while they are there religious riots break out in New Delhi (Hindus are murdering Sikhs), and Maya and her father are forced to flee. They become separated and Maya witnesses some atrocities (a man being burned alive), which affect her so profoundly that she is unable (or unwilling) to speak. She is taken in by a family in a rural part of the cou...more Maya/Jiva is 15 years old when her mother (Mata) commits suicide. She and her father (Bapu) bring her mother’s ashes back to India to be scattered, but while they are there religious riots break out in New Delhi (Hindus are murdering Sikhs), and Maya and her father are forced to flee. They become separated and Maya witnesses some atrocities (a man being burned alive), which affect her so profoundly that she is unable (or unwilling) to speak. She is taken in by a family in a rural part of the country, but the small, superstitious community there accuses her of witchcraft and they are forced to send her away. Sandeep, who has fallen in love with her during their brief time together, protects Maya as they are guided across the desert. When Sandeep learns that their guide has his own plans for Maya, the two teens escape and return to the city to search for her father. What Maya cannot know is how her father has suffered in her absence and how he will respond when they are reunited.

This historical novel in verse is profoundly sad. Maya’s parents’ relationship is what Romeo and Juliet’s might have been had they been allowed to marry and then realized they had major incompatibilities. And the problems don’t end there. After his inflexibility and intolerance make Mata’s life unbearable, Bapu continues to cling to his rigid beliefs – religious and otherwise – adding to his daughter’s despair. It seems they will never be able to break free from their cyclical misery. The vivid colors and culture of India are tarnished by religious violence – and despite the efforts of a few individuals to make things right, it seems a terrifying place filled with cruel and apathetic people. There is some hope that the suffering Maya and her father endure is not in vain, that it has taught them something and brought them closer together, but whether Bapu can forgive and forget (and more importantly, grow) remains to be seen. Penned in parts by both Maya and Sandeep, the format lends itself well to its subject. Still, some readers may be overwhelmed by the relentless barrage of bad stuff – it’s a bit of a downer.(less)

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Mar 29, 2012 Laura Salas rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: historical-fiction, novels-in-verse, young-adult

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Jul 02, 2011 Julia :) rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: favorite-books-ever

In a Nutshell: Karma is an in-verse historical fiction novel that is as beautiful as it is powerful.

Putdownability Factor: I tore through this book. And not just because it was an in-verse novel either! Its just plain addicting.

Cover Love: I normally don't like pink, but I think this cover is gorgeous. It perfectly captures the essence of the book.

Why did I pick this up? I was emailed by the author Cathy Ostlere and she was kind enough to send me a copy of the book to review! Also, I'm always a...more

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Feb 20, 2013 Riverbkstar rated it 3 of 5 stars

Thought this book would be a quick read. Its quick if you can keep up with it and not lose interest. I lost interest multiple times and therefore it took me 2 weeks to read.

I had to read this book for white pine and at first found it to be very interesting. It follows a hindu/seik girl named Maya whose father brings her to india to say goodbye to her mother's ashes. During their stay, all hell breaks lose in India and Maya is separated from her dad and fostered by a family who is very strict and...more

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Aug 25, 2011 Kim marked it as to-read

Julianna Baggott (NPR) writes: Karma is a rich historical novel by Cathy Ostlere that's wild and unpredictable. Set in 1984, it begins with the poetic diary entries of 15-year-old Maya, whose more-or-less typical high school life in Canada is shattered when her mother commits suicide. Maya, who is half-Hindu and half-Sikh, flies to India with her father and her mother's ashes. Caught up in the violent aftermath of Indira Gandhi's assassination, the two are separated, and Maya is cast into the st...more

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Jun 18, 2012 Shona rated it 2 of 5 stars

I found Karma to be a relatively compelling read in which the author made some intriguing choices - particularly mirroring the conflict in India in 1984 with the main characters own heritage. On that basis, it was enlightening and worth the time it took to read it. The fact that that the author was present in India for a short visit at the time period in question adds some credibility to the historical aspects of the narrative, but I still found myself uncomfortable with the idea that it had bee...more

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Nov 03, 2011 Lesley rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: india-and-indians

Blending novels with poetry is a risky proposition, and can go disastrously awry. Yet Cathy Ostlere manages a complicated narrative from dual points of view, written in the form of several hundred short poems. These are not mere verses or doggerel, but highly imagistic pieces which blend into a gripping adventure and love story.

Maya, the daughter of a Hindu mother and Sikh father, lives in small town Canada, where her family suffers from isolation and casual xenophobia. After her mother commits...more

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Mar 24, 2012 Heather rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: historical-fiction, novels-in-verse, young-adult, asia

First of all, I have to comment on the format of "Karma." It's written in verse, and I wish it hadn't been. I know I say this in every review of a novel in verse, but I just don't see why it's written this way. When I read parts aloud to myself, it sounded just like a regular book. The language isn't particularly poetic. There's nothing unusual done with the structure. The format just distracted me. Also, the story is supposed to be a diary, so to me it seemed like there were two gimmicks going...more

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Mar 22, 2012 Mary rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: ya

Karma is a novel in verse about an Indian-Canadian girl who arrives in Delhi to scatter her mother's ashes on the day in 1984 when Indira Ghandi was assassinated. Daughter of a Sikh father and Hindu mother, Maya is caught up in the riots and chaos. She meets and falls in love with a boy named Sandeep.

The book has many pages, but they go quickly because of all the white spaces. The story is a compelling page-turner, but the language makes you want to slow down and pay attention to it, so there's...more Karma is a novel in verse about an Indian-Canadian girl who arrives in Delhi to scatter her mother's ashes on the day in 1984 when Indira Ghandi was assassinated. Daughter of a Sikh father and Hindu mother, Maya is caught up in the riots and chaos. She meets and falls in love with a boy named Sandeep.

The book has many pages, but they go quickly because of all the white spaces. The story is a compelling page-turner, but the language makes you want to slow down and pay attention to it, so there's this tension that makes the narrative pace whatever the reader wants it to be. I don't see this genre or format often so I was interested to see what Ostlere would do with it. It seemed to give her a lot of freedom and forced her to produce writing that was strong on the sentence level and could withstand the attention and scrutiny you give a poem. She could flash forward or backward in time, in and out of physical situations. She conveyed a surprising amount of information with the titles of the poems. Every once in a while she would have a poem of three lines or fewer. These were carefully chosen for impact, of course. Typeface, italics, parentheses and spacing were also used to convey information like dialogue, narrator change (Maya and Sandeep are both narrators), asides and inner monologues. The free verse form was flexible enough to contain the fear and chaos of the riots and violence, as well as the sweet emotions of love between the two teens. The form also created some gaps in information, most of which did not impede understanding, but which might be frustrating to some readers.

The historical setting catalyzed the action and generated a conflict that Maya seemed to have been created to fall in the middle of, as a foreign-raised, half-Hindu, half-Sikh. It also put the themes of hypocrisy and forgiveness front and center. The book made me want to learn more about what happened in India in the year of my birth, and that's a feeling I like taking away from a book.

The love story was sweet, with the couple separated by honor and family and religion. Westernized Maya wants to share a bed with Sandeep, who refuses so that he can be honest and respectful to her father, who forbids Maya to see him when they finally find him., since he's Hindu. There are many concerns with protecting Maya's honor and virginity, and arguments about whether or not she'll be married off against her will, which are certainly cultural issues, but Maya herself has opinions about these topics that render the discussions more progressive.

The ending is not exactly happy, but it's hopeful and it allows both Maya and Sandeep to grow up. Things got so bad that for a while I thought I'd be happy with almost any ending that left both of them alive and Maya not in an arranged marriage, but it's nowhere near that bleak, considering the dramatic setting. I kind of wonder if there will be a sequel, but it seems like it would need another world-changing event to focus the action around, and I can't think of one, unless these two Indian kids are going to meet up again at the fall of the Berlin wall when they're 22 or something.

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Sep 21, 2012 Christina rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: booksinverse, read-in-2012, romance, multicultural

Beautifully lyrical story set in 1984, about Maya, the 16 year old daughter of a Sikh father and a Hindu mother who travels to India from Canada with her father, to spread her mother's ashes; but they get caught up in riots and violence against Sikhs in the aftermath of the assassination of prime minister Indira Gandhi. She witnesses horrible things, and gets separated from her father; the latter half of the book introduces the character of Sandeep, a boy whose family takes Maya in when she's lo...more

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About Cathy Ostlere

Cathy Ostlere’s second book, KARMA, a novel-in-verse, grew from her travels through India in 1984, the year Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was assassinated by her Sikh bodyguards. KARMA's story of two teenagers who fall in love while fighting to stay alive is a moving and turbulent narrative based on real historical events. Cathy's first book, LOST: A MEMOIR, began as a series of poems and essays. I...more

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“When we tell our stories, the gods hear our sorrows.” — 4 people liked it

“I listen to the sound of India's voices for the last time . Laughter ripples like water . A prayer is a single note held long . There is so much life here . And too much death.I feel a soft brezze caress my face and I look up. An orange ribbon is floating through the air . In India , it's easy to see the wind .” — 2 people liked it

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