Review
From the book jacket: Poignant, evocative, and unforgettable,
The
Space Between Us is an intimate portrait of a distant yet familiar world.
Set in modern-day India, it is the story of two compelling and achingly real
women: Sera Dubash, an upper-middle-class Parsi housewife whose opulent
surroundings hide the shame and disappointment of her abusive marriage, and
Bhima, a stoic illiterate hardened by a life of despair and loss, who has worked
in the Dubash household for more than twenty years. A powerful and perceptive
literary masterwork, author Thrity Umrigar's extraordinary novel demonstrates
how the lives of the rich and poor are intrinsically connected yet vastly
removed from each other, and how the strong bonds of womanhood are eternally
opposed by the divisions of class and culture.
Comment: Even today, almost every middle-class...
Beyond the Book
Thrity Umrigar was born and brought up in Bombay (Mumbai) until the age of 21, when she
came to the U.S. to study. She chose to take an M.A. at Ohio State
University because as she was checking through a list of American colleges that
offered journalism when her eyes fell on "Ohio State University" just as the Joan Baez recording she was
listening to played
Banks of the Ohio, which she took to be
"a sign".
During her more than 17 years as a journalist she has written for the
Washington Post, the Plain Dealer, and other national newspapers, and
contributes regularly to the Boston Globe's book pages. She also teaches creative
writing and literature at Case Western Reserve University.
The Space Between Us is her second novel,...
