While I found this novel had a wonderful premise, I was never convinced this was set in the WWI time frame. The events were there and the action but there was a certain mood lacking.

I found the narrator's first person use took away from the narrative especially when he would break out and say something like "you have to remember that in 1914 in the British army we had no helmets." Interesting fact but I didn't see how he addresses the reader. This happened often enough and it's just something I don't particularly care for as it takes me away from the story.

This story that spans decades and countries could have easily lost focus but the writer grabs your attention from the beginning and doesn't let go.

You care about these twin boys who were left without their parents and you want to know what their fate will be.

The medical descriptions were interesting to read even if at times a bit too real. I didn't want to imagine some of these things but I really liked reading about the love of medicine and how it is a calling not because of the prestige or money it can bring but because of the good it serves.

An impressive fiction debut.

Author Padma Viswanathan sets out to tell an epic story of a woman and her family living in India from 1896-1962. Sivakami is a Brahamin woman who is married off at 10 but by the time she is 18 she's already a widow.

She has two children but her life is dictated by what is expected of widowed women, basically that they shut themselves off from society because after all something must be wrong for them to be widow. It is as if they were a bad omen.

Interesting tidbits of what is expected of widowed women are shared in this narrative. That in my opinion is the strength of the novel but even though this is supposed to be the story of Sivakami, I felt that I still didn't know her well enough at the end of the book. I wanted to know what she thought of all the rules placed before her.

Normally I don't judge a book by its size but in this case I do think the novel went on for too long.

I was really looking forward to reading this book. The setting, Malaysia, would be a new one for me but unfortunately the book didn't grab me as much as I hoped.

While there are many passages with beautiful descriptions of the land, city, etc. sometimes I felt like that was actually not helping the plot move forward. I kept wanting to get on with the story. And, with regards to the characters I only felt like I got to know Aasha. So, all in all I was a bit disappointed with the novel.