At six, Shiva saves her family from bandits. Now--how will she protect her children from danger they inflict on themselves? A family saga about cultural identity and the meaning of home.
Bombay Trilogy is the embodiment of three novels: Shiva’s Arms, Rescuing Ranu, and Kalpavriksha, weaving them into a sprawling epic that follows four generations of the Sambashivan family. The volume opens with the future matriarch Shiva, aged six, shooting a bandit who threatens her home. As she goes through time, protecting the family becomes her dharma-- unfortunately for her son Ramesh’s American wife, the fragile Alice. Not only does Shiva refuse to accept the outsider as a daughter, but she disowns her natural daughter Nela for bringing shame into the family with the rumor of an unsanctioned romance. Nela makes the ostracism work for her, fully exploiting her freedom, achieving academic success, and falling in love with Jackson. They marry and adopt an orphan named Ranu, saving the child from a forced marriage, and giving Jackson a new vocation─ to fight the trafficking of child-brides. The work takes him away from his new family and lands him in prison, and Nela must use her unexpected wealth from an invention to negotiate his release. She still has not been able to buy his freedom by the time the extended family meets again for another relative’s marriage ceremony, years later. She is, however, able to reconnect with her brother Ramesh, and help him rescue his student Anand from an episode of caste-related abuse by police, while their kinsmen revel in the ostentatious wedding. Against a backdrop of historical tumult and changing values, the question of what constitutes a family, and what do we owe it, hangs in the air, as Bombay Trilogy evolves into an exploration of cultural identity, personal choice, and the meaning of home.
Excerpt
As Anand walked along, he thought about the future. He would be proud to support his parents once he had his doctorate and a good job. He wondered if his mother and father would try to arrange a marriage for him. He thought it would be nice to have a child.
He turned the corner, and a shadow fell like a tree in front of him. The dark shape connected to a temple piercing the sky. It was an unfamiliar structure, and must have gone up while he was abroad. He had become used to skyscrapers in America, but never expected to see one near his old neighborhood of narrow dirt roads and ramshackle dwellings. This new building seemed like a mirage, or a dream doomed to evaporate upon waking. Anand slowed his steps to let his mind grab the image and make it real.
All of a sudden, he lost his balance and found himself stumbling into the baraat of groomsmen and wedding guests, dancing and singing, drums beating, horns tooting. Expensively-dressed people waved, half in and half out of a caravan of gleaming cars inching along the road to the temple.
Anand had to laugh when the bridegroom hanging onto the elephant’s ears came into view. Poor elephant.
The Apple Tree Blossoms in The Fall, is the life journey of Carineh - a child, a teenager, a wife, a mother, but most of all a woman of purpose. From stories of her parents held-up by bandits; the white donkey gifted by Khomeini; her father's death f
The Apple Tree Blossoms in The Fall, is the life journey of Carineh - a child, a teenager, a wife, a mother, but most of all a woman of purpose. From stories of her parents held-up by bandits; the white donkey gifted by Khomeini; her father's death f
Soldier's Gap is a non-traditional mystery with literary elements. The high school principal is brutally murdered, but Deputy Sheriff Dave Jenkins's search for meaning and love is a much more significant theme.
"Murder isn't usually this fun
