SISTER OF MY HEART

Born in the big old Calcutta house on the same tragic night that both their fathers were mysteriously lost, Sudha and Anju are cousins. Closer even than sisters, they share clothes, worries, dreams in the matriarchal Chatterjee household. But when Sudha discovers a terrible secret about the past, their mutual loyalty is sorely tested. A family crisis forces their mothers to start the serious business of arranging the girls’ marriages, and the pair is torn apart. Sudha moves to her new family’s home in rural Bengal, while Anju joins her immigrant husband in California. Although they have both been trained to be perfect wives, nothing has prepared them for the pain, as well as the joy, that each will have to face in her new life. Steeped in the mysticism of ancient tales, this jewel-like novel shines its light on the bonds of family, on love and loss, against the realities of traditional marriage in modern times.

Born in the big old Calcutta house on the same tragic night that both their fathers were mysteriously lost, Sudha and Anju are cousins. Closer even than sisters, they share clothes, worries, dreams in the matriarchal Chatterjee household. But when Sudha discovers a terrible secret about the past, their mutual loyalty is sorely tested. A family crisis forces their mothers to start the serious business of arranging the girls’ marriages, and the pair is torn apart. Sudha moves to her new family’s home in rural Bengal, while Anju joins her immigrant husband in California. Although they have both been trained to be perfect wives, nothing has prepared them for the pain, as well as the joy, that each will have to face in her new life. Steeped in the mysticism of ancient tales, this jewel-like novel shines its light on the bonds of family, on love and loss, against the realities of traditional marriage in modern times.