Overall Rating:

While browsing for a historical fiction book, I stumbled across The Secrets Between Us, written by Thrity Umrigar. Reading through the synopsis, I discovered that it wasn’t necessarily “historical,” per se, but a modern tale following the stories of two women in urban Mumbai. Different from some of the books that I read recently, I decided to give it a try — and could not be more impressed.

The Secrets Between Us, by Thrity Umrigar

It should be noted that this book is a sequel to one of Umrigar’s previous books, The Space Between Us. However, I did not realize this, and started reading this first; it wasn’t too much of an issue, though, since this sequel was a separate story involving the main protagonist from the previous book.

Before I delve into the actual review, here’s a quick, spoil-free overview of the book:

The story follows Bhima, a woman raising her granddaughter, Maya. Both live in a Mumbai slum, and have faced a series of unfortunate circumstances. Bhima’s husband and son abandoned her long ago; her daugther and son-in-law (Maya’s parents) also passed away. In addition, Bhima was brutally dismissed from her job as a servant in Serabai’s house. Sera and Bhima have maintained a close relationship for years; Sera even paid for Maya’s college tuition. This dismissal thus leaves Bhima distraught, placing her back at square one. This book follows her journey as she picks up the pieces, attempting to build a new life for herself.

Bhima’s life soon intertwines with Parvati’s. While Bhima once lived a period of relative calmness, Parvati has faced obstacle after obstacle. Eventually, a combination of fate and necessity bring them together, and they find themselves managing a stall in a busy market. It is through this business that the two women not only improve their circumstances a little, but also form a deep bond with each other.

And… if you would like to find out all the details, I encourage you to read the book!

Typically, when I rate a fiction book, I break the rating up into three categories and take the average:

• Character Development: Are the characters realistic representations of people? Do they change and grow throughout the story?
• Writing: How was the quality of the overall writing? Was it descriptive? Did it arise emotion?
• Plot: How good was the book’s story? Was it significant and or powerful? Did it pace itself appropriately and flow well? Was it suspenseful?

Character Development (5/5)

Each character was crafted with extreme depth and breadth; so much was going on inside of them, compared to what they revealed on the surface. Because this book was written from two points of view, readers got a glimpse of both Bhima’s and Parvati’s thinking. In addition, both protagonists had so many layers to them; these layers only unfolded once the protagonists began to interact from each other. Often, a scene it told from the eyes of one character, and then retold from the eyes of the other. While Bhima and Parvati initially shared a mutual dislike of each other, this animosity soon turned into a mutual need (almost like a contract) between the two, and then a close friendship. This change felt so natural and so evident due to the way that the author presented the characters and the scenes.

Of course, there were obvious villains throughout the book; these characters were “well developed” in the sense that they added more value to the story. There were multitude of people introduced, ranging from Parvati’s “nephew” to Bhima’s former master. In some books, these extra characters tend to cause clutter; meanwhile, Umrigar included each character with purpose, as they all played a significant impact on the lives of Parvati and Bhima.

Writing (5/5)

A good book simply cannot exist without good writing! Ultimately, the words and language bring a story to life. The Secrets Between Us exemplifies this, since Umrigar developed not only her characters with purpose, but also her writing. The description and metaphors brought life to the story, which made it much more emotional and immersive as a result.

Of course, there were many more rhetorical devices used throughout the novel — however, they all accomplish the goal of bringing readers closer to the characters.

Plot (5/5)

And now we’ve arrived at the core of a good story… which is, the actual story. A lot of books I’ve read have fallen short not because they’re unbearable, but because certain elements of the story just weren’t executed well. It infuriates me when I read a book with a wonderful beginning and middle, but has an ending that falls short; all that potential the story had is wasted.

However, the opposite was true in The Secrets Between Us; in fact, the ending was probably the best part of the story. It included a sudden plot twist, but then ended on a bittersweet note. My description will not do it justice, so you’ll have to read the book to find out 🙂

 

In summary, The Secrets Between Us by Thrity Umrigar was quite an amazing read; it was provocative and insightful, since it highlighted the injustices plaguing Indian women. Regardless, the story, writing and characters are incredibly relatable and memorable — I encourage you to check the book out!