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In this intimate and honest book, readers discover a story about the Indian diaspora, which has historically and globally found success. The book opens with a unique wedding ceremony that gives insight into respected traditions and cultural values. As the book continues, readers learn more about Shivali, one of the novel’s main characters. Rife with violence, hunger, and danger, Shivali’s journey takes her two children to South Africa, where she attempts to build a new life and pursue happiness for herself and her sons.
While the novel’s focus on the Indian diaspora is a significant contribution in itself, the novel’s incorporation of a woman’s story to save herself and her children by risking everything to find a happy life in a foreign country during a time when women were bound to their husbands is even more profound. The book gives insight into a number of traditions with which Western readers may be unfamiliar. These insights are necessary in order to understand the characters’ mindsets and actions. For example, the book opens with Shivali’s thoughts about marriage expectations for Indian women during her time. She reflects that the priest made marriage sound “so romantic” because she and her husband “would always be together.” They would basically be one another’s shadows. However, Shivali also points out that the priest failed to mention that being her husband’s shadow meant that she was “silent, empty, and dark with no detail or color.”
Later in the novel, readers also learn about the culture’s approach to issues like suicide. Specifically, this happens when one of the characters takes their own life. Numerous characters describe suicide as “a sin,” and the narrator interjects that those who commit suicide cannot be buried in a traditional ceremony because it is “bad luck.” The book also provides readers with a unique perspective about community, particularly in the Indian diaspora.
As the novel concludes, readers learn that the indentured servanthood endured by the Indian population outside of India helped them form a community regardless of whether or not they were Hindi. Most of all, the book leaves readers of all backgrounds with a powerful message about endurance and fortitude: ”Life marched on, and love lived here every day.” In its epilogue, readers find this positive message, as well as one about working to overcome the past’s horrors and working together to create a better future and a positive community. The epilogue also provides a powerful message about the potential of the diaspora to help shape a culture’s future generations no matter where they reside. The book advocates that this occurs primarily through an understanding of a culture’s past and traditions, and storytelling is a prime component: “They heard stories of warrior queens, of ships that crossed dark oceans, and of men who were brave and strong.”
Books like this are important contributions to the literary canon because they harbor a story not typically incorporated into the traditional one. In its examination of a woman’s defiance of patriarchal rules and expectations, this book resonates with other historical fiction novels like The Map Colorist, which examine similar themes. For readers interested in a diaspora frequently overlooked in history books and fiction, this book will prove to be an important read since its voice is one among many striving to decolonize the current literary and historical fiction canon.