Before we Visit the Goddess
Beautiful, powerful new novel from the bestselling, award-winning author of Sister of My Heart and The Mistress of Spices about three generations of mothers and daughters who must discover their greatest source of strength in one another a masterful, brilliant tale of a family both united and torn apart by ambition and love.
The daughter of a poor baker in rural Bengal, India, Sabitri yearns to get an education, but her family’s situation means college is an impossible dream. Then an influential woman from Kolkata takes Sabitri under her wing, but her generosity soon proves dangerous after the girl makes a single, unforgiveable misstep. Years later, Sabitri’s own daughter, Bela, haunted by her mother’s choices, flees abroad with her political refugee lover but the America she finds is vastly different from the country she’d imagined. As the marriage crumbles and Bela is forced to forge her own path, she unwittingly imprints her own child, Tara, with indelible lessons about freedom, heartbreak and loyalty that will take a lifetime to unravel.
In her latest novel, Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni explores the complex relationships between mothers and daughters and the different kinds of love that bind us across generations. Before We Visit the Goddess captures the gorgeous complexity of these multigenerational and transcontinental bonds, sweeping across the twentieth century from the countryside of Bengal, India, to the streets of Houston, Texas an extraordinary journey told through a sparkling symphony of voices.
Reviews:
Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni is perfect, again. "Before We Visit the Goddess" is a brilliant story of three generations of strong (ethnically) Indian women and their relationships with each other. This is no "perfect happy family" story, and that adds a lot of depth to the complex bonds between these women and the men in their lives.
Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni's prose is elegant. As always, she captures emotions gracefully. Although the book has an Indian element, it is more about the relationships and emotions than about the ethnicity of the characters. Hence, anyone who is concerned about the cultural aspects about this book should have nothing to fear.
"Before We Visit the Goddess" is a fabulous book and you will thoroughly enjoy reading it.
The daughter of a poor baker in rural Bengal, India, Sabitri yearns to get an education, but her family’s situation means college is an impossible dream. Then an influential woman from Kolkata takes Sabitri under her wing, but her generosity soon proves dangerous after the girl makes a single, unforgiveable misstep. Years later, Sabitri’s own daughter, Bela, haunted by her mother’s choices, flees abroad with her political refugee lover but the America she finds is vastly different from the country she’d imagined. As the marriage crumbles and Bela is forced to forge her own path, she unwittingly imprints her own child, Tara, with indelible lessons about freedom, heartbreak and loyalty that will take a lifetime to unravel.
In her latest novel, Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni explores the complex relationships between mothers and daughters and the different kinds of love that bind us across generations. Before We Visit the Goddess captures the gorgeous complexity of these multigenerational and transcontinental bonds, sweeping across the twentieth century from the countryside of Bengal, India, to the streets of Houston, Texas an extraordinary journey told through a sparkling symphony of voices.
Reviews:
Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni is perfect, again. "Before We Visit the Goddess" is a brilliant story of three generations of strong (ethnically) Indian women and their relationships with each other. This is no "perfect happy family" story, and that adds a lot of depth to the complex bonds between these women and the men in their lives.
Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni's prose is elegant. As always, she captures emotions gracefully. Although the book has an Indian element, it is more about the relationships and emotions than about the ethnicity of the characters. Hence, anyone who is concerned about the cultural aspects about this book should have nothing to fear.
"Before We Visit the Goddess" is a fabulous book and you will thoroughly enjoy reading it.
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