The Parted Earth
This multi-generational novel begins in New Delhi, India, in June 1947. The British-administered partition of India and Pakistan is chaotic and causing severe tension. But in the Catholic St. Magdalene School for Girls, Muslim, Hindu, Sikh, Christian, and Buddhist students and those of other faiths get along warmly. The deteriorating political situation soon puts an end to that. A young Hindu woman, Deepa, loses her parents in an attack on their medical facility by extremists, and, as their only child, is distraught, as she feels so alone, with her Muslim boyfriend having fled to Pakistan. And worse; she’s pregnant.
Seven decades later in the United States, Deepa’s granddaughter, Shan, is experiencing her own tragedy, after losing her baby through miscarriage and the dissolution of her failed marriage. More poignantly, Shan, who later finds out her beloved child was a boy, feels additional heartbreak knowing she was earlier even considering abortion. Shan, who knows little about her family, sets out to locate her grandmother and try to get answers about her people and their stories.
This emotional novel takes place over different time periods on three continents with many appealing, interlinked characters and often tragic subplots. The character-driven aspects of the book are very well done, while it is lean on the geopolitical, military and, historical details of the 1947 partition, which resulted in more than a million deaths and millions more refugees. The theme of intergenerational disruption of families and homes is shared by many current novels, and I am sure readers will treasure this dramatic and well-crafted book.
