The Secrets Between Us by Thrity Umrigar

A special thank you to Edelweiss and Harper for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Part two of the Between Us series by Thrity Umrigar picks up on Bhima's story from The Space Between Us.  Bhima had been a servant for the last 20 years and she lost her job when she spoke up against a crime that was committed against her family.  What is more painful to her than losing her job is the loss of the relationship with her former employer, Sera, who was her only confident in her otherwise lonely life.  Bhima must now find a way to make ends meet for her and her granddaughter, Maya.

Her luck seems to change with the chance meeting with Parvati, a bitter and street-wise older woman.    They form an unlikely relationship from acquaintances to business partners.  Each woman fills the voids in the other that were created by their pasts.  Bhima has made her first true friend.

Although set in modern day India, there are some horrific and almost barbaric things that are almost unbelievable in today's society.  Then again, we live in the western world and cannot fathom what life is like for women in India, especially poor and illiterate ones.

Umrigar's story is about love, loss, struggle, class, and misfortune due to circumstances.  Her words read like fine poetry and are a sharp contrast to the cultural brutality that is depicted.  I have had the pleasure of reviewing her before, and this certainly won't be the last.  Her writing is captivating and thought provoking and I highly recommend this series.  

Everybody's Son: A Novel by Thrity Umrigar

A special thank you to Edelweiss and Harper for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thrity Umrigar is a beautiful writer who capitalizes on human emotion in her latest novel about two families that couldn't be more different.

During a terrible heatwave in 1991, ten-year-old Anton has been locked in his mother's apartment in the projects.  After being by himself for seven days without any air-conditioning, or fan, with the windows nailed shut, and no electricity, Anton breaks a window and climbs out.  He is bleeding from a wound in his leg when the police find him.  All-the-while, his mother, Juanita is discovered unconscious and half-naked in a crack house less than three blocks away.  When she comes to, she immediately asks for her "baby boy" insisting she only left for a quick hit, but that her drug dealer kept her high while repeatedly raping her.  Anton is placed with child services when his mother is sent to jail.

David Coleman is the son of a US senator and a white Harvard-educated judge.  After the death of his only high-school-aged son, Coleman is desperate for a home with a child again.  David and his wife, Delores, foster Anton and quickly grow attached to the bright boy.  Despite Anton's mother's existence, Coleman uses his power, connections, and white privilege to keep his foster son.

Anton follows in his adoptive father's footsteps and seems to have a knack for politics that is complimented by his charm. On the cusp of greatness, Anton learns the truth about his mother and the lengths Coleman went to to keep him as his very own.  He begins to question who he really is—he is nobody's son, yet everybody's son.

Umrigar explores class, race, power, privilege, and morals in this emotional heart-wrenching story that will stay with the reader long after it is finished.