“With moments of humor, tenderness, misunderstandings and sadness it has everything a reader could ask for in a novel.”

 

NO MAJOR SPOILERS

This is the deeply moving story of Pival Sangupta, a recent widow living in Kolkata. Before Pival’s husband died, their son Rahi had come out as gay. The father immediately disowned him from the family and threw him out of the house. Rahi moved to America where he pursued his love of Marine Biology. Some time after he was forced to leave his home the phone rings in the Sangupta household one evening and when her husband hangs up,the phone, he informs Pival that her son has died suddenly in California of a heart attack.

Now alone in the world, Pival decides to,leave her home and servants behind and take a trip to America, to find out if her son is really dead.

The rest of the story will tell us what Pival will discover on her trip. She makes arrangements for the tour with a tour provider in New York. He will provide a tour guide named Satya, a young man who will be leading a tour for the first time. As it would be inappropriate for Pival to travel alone with a single man, a young American woman named Rebecca is hired to be her companion.

The story of their travels is fascinating as we watch while three strangers begin to bond together in the strangest ways.

The book was a delight to read. With moments of humor, tenderness, misunderstandings and sadness it has everything a reader could ask for in a novel about a person who would have to make a trip like this to find out the truth about her son and herself.

Highly recommended.

 

Reviewed by:

Richard Franco

Added 22nd September 2018

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Richard Franco