Secretly an interesting read...

Secret Daughter, by Shilpi Somaya Gowda. 2010

In Gowda's novel we follow to separate families that are joined by one secret connection. We start with Kavita, a young woman living in a small Indian village about to give birth to her second child. She has a daughter and because of this, she knows that she cannot keep her, that she will not be allowed to keep her. To save her life Kavita gives up her daughter. Meanwhile, across the globe, we meet Somer. She is a young woman recently entering the Medical field and is married to a handsome Indian doctor, Krishnan, she met while in Medical school. They have had little success in having a family of their own and eventually decide to ventture to Krishnan's home country to find a child of their own. Here they find Asha, the child left in an orphanage by Kavita nearly one year prior. As we follow both families we see Asha grow up and question her birth parents as well as what it means to be "Indian". We see how difficult it is for Somer to want to relate and protect her child, a child with problems she can't solve. Interlaced with this, we also learn of Kavita and her family. How they cope with the loss of their daughter and how the family grows and changes due the impact of this loss.

Throughout this richly detailed and informative book we learn about the trials of poor families in both rural and urban India, as well as the difficulties faced by a family with two distinct cultural groups and their struggles in raising their adoptive child. Gowda manages to intertwine these two families, connected through the love of their child, as well as educating us, the reader, in the problems women face that the average North America woman could hardly imagine.

This was though provoking and moving in some parts, although I did find some aspects of this book to be a little far reaching. I would recommend this particular book to someone who is interested in women's struggles, and cultural issues, yet isn't looking for anything heavy. Enjoyable for the most part but a little weak in substance despite the content.




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