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Book Reviewed by:A Reese's Book Club Pick! In this riveting and immersive novel, bestselling author Thrity Umrigar tells the story of two couples and the sometimes dangerous and heartbreaking challenges of love across a cultural divide.
Indian American journalist Smita has returned to India to cover a story, but reluctantly: long ago she and her family left the country with no intention of ever coming back. As she follows the case of Meena—a Hindu woman attacked by members of her own village and her own family for marrying a Muslim man—Smita comes face to face with a society where tradition carries more weight than one's own heart, and a story that threatens to unearth the painful secrets of Smita's own past. While Meena's fate hangs in the balance, Smita tries in every way she can to right the scales. She also finds herself increasingly drawn to Mohan, an Indian man she meets while on assignment. But the dual love stories of Honor are as different as the cultures of Meena and Smita themselves: Smita realizes she has the freedom to enter into a casual affair, knowing she can decide later how much it means to her.
In this tender and evocative novel about love, hope, familial devotion, betrayal, and sacrifice, Thrity Umrigar shows us two courageous women trying to navigate how to be true to their homelands and themselves at the same time.
It is hard subject matter to read, but Umrigar does it in such a way that you feel the injustice, the hate, the pain, but can continue reading. She is a master at balancing the horror of what mankind is capable of, while also showing the love, loyalty, and compassion that lives within so many (Kate S). I have read many of Thrity Umrigar's earlier works and found them all to be thoughtful and rich, and Honor is no exception (Nancy L). This was an easy book to rate: five stars, no hesitation. But the author is Thrity Umrigar, who never disappoints (Joan V)...continued
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(Reviewed by First Impressions Reviewers).
At the time of the partition in 1947, what was once the British colony of India was split, separating the predominantly Hindu Dominion of India (modern-day Republic of India) from the predominantly Muslim Dominion of Pakistan (modern-day Pakistan and Bangladesh). Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru envisaged India as a secular socialist democratic republic. Sadly, his vision did not endure, and anti-Muslim sentiment and violence have been a constant, increasingly so since the early 1990s. This issue is captured vividly in Thrity Umrigar's novel Honor, which centers around a Hindu woman who is suing her brothers for murdering her Muslim husband.
India is constitutionally secular, and the population is roughly 84% Hindu and 14% Muslim. ...
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Harvard is the storehouse of knowledge because the freshmen bring so much in and the graduates take so little out.
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Reese Witherspoon
Complex and unfiltered ... Powerful story about family, devotion, and cultural truths.
