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The Secrets Between Us
May 2021: Other Books
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The Secrets Between Us by Thrity Umrigar - 5 stars
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Well that seals it Joy, I will have to add it-
I really think you will like it, Joanne.
It really is wonderful. It may make my top 10 this year.
Sequel to The Space Between Us, where we are introduced to protagonist Bhima, a woman living with her granddaughter in the slums of Mumbai. Though it is a sequel, it can be read as a standalone, since Bhima’s backstory is told in sufficient detail to give the reader the gist of what happened previously.
The main storyline revolves around Bhima and another woman, Pavarti, who has had an even rougher life and sells six bruised cauliflowers daily to barely eke out a living. At first Pavarti believes Bhima looks down on her. Both women are scarred by past experience and have built walls around their hearts to avoid getting hurt. They almost accidentally form business partnership, and a friendship gradually develops between them.
A secondary plotline revolves around Bhima’s new employers, a lesbian couple, who treat her much better than her former employer, for whom she worked for decades. Bhima’s granddaughter is in college, working hard to get her degree, with a goal of getting herself and her grandmother out of the slum.
Umrigar is a wonderful writer, even when describing the harshness of a life in poverty: “But in the basti, one thing sizzles from hovel to hovel, much like the illegal, overhead electric wires that some of the residents have connected to their homes. It is hope. Even in the depth of their despair, hope runs like electricity throughout the basti. It is what makes the woman with no legs weave wicker baskets that she sells to a fancy shop. What makes the blind boy’s mother spend her days picking rags to pay his school fees. What makes the burn victim look for a good match for her daughter.”
The characters are vivid. It is rare for me to cry when reading a book, but this book is powerfully moving, and I admit to shedding a tear or two. The first book is well-constructed and beautifully written. The second is even better. The first is extremely sad. The second contains a more optimistic outlook.