Actual rating: 4.5 stars

Full review on: Flipping Through the Pages

"Our houses may break, but our mothers won't. Instead, they form a human chain, hijabs and dupattas snapping in the metallic wind, saris shimmering in the afternoon sun. Between the machines and the broken stone, our mothers blaze like carnations scattered at the feet of smashed-up goddesses. Angry, unforgiving goddesses, the kind with skulls around their necks and corpses beneath their feet.
The kind that protect their children.
That protect their daughters."

You often come across books that surprise you. And A People’s History of Heaven was one such book for me.

- The story takes place in a fictional slum called Heaven in contemporary Bangalore, India, and revolves around five girls, on the verge of womanhood, and their mothers, who are left behind by their husbands. The story starts on the day when the local government sent bulldozers to demolish that slum.
- We have a graffiti artist (Banu), a transgender Christian convert (Joy), a blind dancer (Deepa), a migrant forced to be an adult before her age (Padma) and a queer daughter of a hijabi union leader (Rukhsana). But all these girls forge an unbreakable bond in spite of their circumstances and that’s what we discover in the story.
-You can see that we have so much diversity here in terms of characters.
- The slum life has been portrayed realistically. There is poverty for sure but there is hope too. Most of the husbands have left their wives.
- The author has done this wonderful sarcastic job of “then” and “now” Bangalore. I am living in this city and I can resonate with everything the author said. How this changed from a small village-like town to a megapolis city. How the engineers now rule the city filled with glass buildings.
- I loved the writing so much. I am not a huge fan of metaphors and poetic writing but this book was certainly an exception. The writing was lyrical and poetic and yet I was able to connect to it. There were so many beautiful lines in the book. Actually, it is the most highlighted book for me in recent times :D
- The author has chosen to tell the backstories of each character in between the current day events. Well, actually most of the book is backstory only. We are shown only two days in the present and in these two days, the author has given the backstory of every girl and her mother and grandmother. And then in past too, there are multiple timelines.
- There has been multiple themes explored. There are all diverse characters with varied religious beliefs and family backgrounds. We have varied gender identities and sexual orientations as well as physical disabilities. We have social issues like arranged marriages, forced sterilization and poverty.
- It speaks of mother-daughter relationships and I am a huge fan of this theme. These mothers and daughters, though don’t necessarily agree with each other always, but they are protective and fierce for each other.
- Then we have supportive friendships. There is unconditional love among them.
- And finally, we have the power of women. How women survive in this world which is otherwise so difficult for them, which has always thrown tough choices in their way. The power of women who can survive without a husband and the power of women who can stop the bulldozers from ruining their homes.
- If you love literary fiction, you should definitely pick this book.

This is a book about women, for women, written by a woman, which shouldn’t be missed. The story is atmospheric and beautiful. The author has written a novel with difficult but rather realistic aspects of Indian life. This is a story encapsulated with beautiful female characters and strong mother-daughter relationships. And for the (Indian)people who are still trying to find an Indian novel with the LGBTQ+ rep, well here it is.

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