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A Novel
by Bharati MukherjeeA stirring novel of three women, two continents, and a perilous journey from the old world to the new - weaves together fascinating stories of the sisters' ancestors, their childhood memories, and dramatic scenes from India's history.
From one of our most respected writers of fiction comes a stirring novel of three women, two continents, and a perilous journey from the old world to the new.
At the heart of this remarkable new novel by the award-winning author of The Middleman and Other Stories and Jasmine are issues of culture, identity, and familial loyalty. Comparable to The Joy Luck Club in its honest portrayal of the American immigrant experience, Desirable Daughters follows the diverging paths taken by three Calcutta-born sisters as they come of age in a changing world.
Tara, Padma, and Parvati were born into a wealthy Brahmin family presided over by their doting father and his traditionalist mother. Intelligent and artistic, the girls are nevertheless constrained by a society with little regard for women. Their subsequent rebellion will lead them in different directions, to different continents, and through different circumstances that strain yet ultimately strengthen their relationship.
Moving effortlessly between generations, Mukherjee weaves together fascinating stories of the sisters' ancestors, their childhood memories, and dramatic scenes from India's history.
Robert Olen Butler
Mukherjee is writing achingly compassionate, ravishingly beautiful, absolutely essential books. And Desirable Daughters is one of her best. Russell Banks
Desirable Daughters, with its broadband vision of history and geography, is [Mukherjee's] finest novel so far. William Kennedy
A beautifully written family story of the eternal pull of ancient Indian tradition on even the most contemporary of lives.
If you liked Desirable Daughters, try these:
by Monica Ali
Published 2004
This gorgeous first novel is the deeply moving story of one woman, Nazneen, born in a Bangladeshi village and transported to London at age eighteen to enter into an arranged marriage.
by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
Published 2003
A moving and satisfying sequel to Sister of My Heart, The Vine of Desire stands on its own as a novel of extraordinary depth and sensitivity.
The good writer, the great writer, has what I have called the three S's: The power to see, to sense, and to say. ...
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