What the Body Remembers
Set against the rich backdrop of India during the Raj, sweeping across time and space, this is a wonderful story in all senses of the word. When Satya is unable to give her husband children, he marries 16-year-old Roop and brings her into the house that has become Satya’s kingdom. Satya wishes her husband to be happy, and Roop wishes to be a sister to Satya — but their relationship is doomed from the start. When Roop’s children are given to Satya to raise, the rift between the two women widens. But despite the war between them, Satya unwittingly gives Roop the strength she will need to survive as Partition rips India and Pakistan apart.
What the Body Remembers is a sumptuous, exotic novel, weaving the personal and political into a seamless narrative. It’s hard to put down and difficult to forget.
