I had high hopes on Klara and the Sun as I saw it everywhere in the Booker predictions. I was waiting around for the hype to subside to pick this one but alas, it did make into the list, didn't it?

Set in a dystopian society, Klara and the Sun offers us a narrative of different dimensions of love. Yes! Love is very much in the air. The kind of love that makes you go crazy. We have two different dynamics here. The love expressed by Josie's mother and the love expressed by Klara. The love of the mother is selfish. The type of love that is innate to every mother to keep their little ones close. To do anything under the sun to save their kids. The type of love that refuses to let go. Josie's mother plans many things to save Josie and as a wartime plan, she has Klara.

Klara, the AF, has something that's not often seen in humans. A sacrificial love that doesn't expect anything in return. I say not often because we humans are complicated animals with feelings and thoughts and expectations and whatnot. But Klara is a machine and she shows so much emotion than I ever can and there is something quite unsettling about her innocent love. We do see at one point she was ready to sacrifice herself to do things that she believes in to save her human.

Even when she was discarded in the scrapyard, Klara remains optimistic. She is happy about the life she had with her human. Of course, humans outgrow things and discard things as if we have never had them in the first place, my stomach gave a lurch on reading the last part of this book. Klara felt so human to me and I felt that she didn't deserve that ending in her last days.

In this dystopian society, humans undergo some genetic alteration process to get 'lifted into some upper-class society. We are not given specifics and are left to fill in the blanks. Humans have to survive this lifting process to enjoy the pleasures like education and all that. And I think that was shitty. Education should be available to everyone irrespective of their status. But we are currently living in a dystopia with similar issues, so I'll let that pass.

On the outlook, Klara and the Sun is a simple book about a girl and her AF. But after finishing it, you will be pushed into the black hole that is your thoughts. There is so much to unpack here. @bernie.lombardi in his review says that it is a critique of human individualism. And I think that forms one of the multifaceted themes here. We think we are unique individuals, when in fact we are a manifestation of everything and everyone around us.

Klara, like a human, learns the people around her. She studies the scene and detects the mood quite quickly. Like humans, she also gets sensory overload and when she is overloaded she sees things in partitions. She is not human but I couldn't shake the feeling there's so much more to her than that. Her childlike innocence and thoughts get creepier as it goes. There are so many emotions but a detachment that makes the narrative cold and distant. The dialogue between organic and inorganic has made Klara's thoughts empathetic but aloof.

I expected this book to be dark. I was turning page after page and waiting for the sun to shine. But let me tell you, the sun didn't shine on me as it did on Josie and I was devastated. I do think that this book will hit different with an intellectual audience or a more empathetic audience. But to me, it felt incomplete and that's on me, isn't it? There are so many things going on here but my brain is a jelly to think anything more than this. I may visit this on some other day and revamp this one.

I usually stay away from War fiction or any other fiction that deals with war, displacement and the trauma caused by it. It feels like a fetish of sorts to sympathize with the characters when they are in so much pain. But I was drawn into the blurb of this book that promised both adventure and a good cry. After reading the translators note, I was sure that this isn't one of those books that fetishize pain for pleasure.


Set over six months, during the German occupation in Hungary, Abigail follows Gina Vitay, who is sent away from Budapest to a prison-like Protestant boarding school for girls out of nowhere, by her father, a general in the Hungarian army. She didn't understand why she's been sent away and tries to resist but in vain. At school, her refusal to take part in a childish tradition makes her public enemy number one to her class. She even tries to run away but stopped trying after her father made her promise that she won't do it again. Later, she is helped by Abigail, a legend who helps the girls in need, to stop her from being captured by the Nazi army. What ensues is a gripping tale of everything Gina thought she knew.


Abigail is a lovely mixture of war and domesticity that moves around in constant circles. When this domesticity of Matula clashes with the outside world, we have some remarkable writing. The girls of Matula are trained with iron fists. They have their schedule cut out for them and punishments were in order if they are strayed. This domesticity is broken when there was an air raid demo or when they witness some rebellious placards. The resulting confusion is something that's both amusing and tragic to read. 


These girls were 14 and they have to worry if they can see each other the next year. But, these girls even found a way to make the best out of their situation. Their naivety and pettiness are what gives life to this book. In some places, I was even reminded of my school days. Just when I thought the plot is dragging, there is always another surprise waiting. This often ends in an adventure or a revelation or an accident of sorts. What surprised me was how authentic teenage girls were written. There is always some maniac quality while writing about teenagers (especially in the fantasy) but here, there is the perfect moodiness, immaturity, haste in deciding things and of course, misinterpreting the adult lives and forming theories of their own.


All these characteristics make Abigail a fantastic coming of age story. Len Rix has mentioned in his preface that there are so many plot devices that are used to depict this transition of childhood to adulthood and I had a field day in interpreting them. The adults are present in this story in the background. We have no insights into their life. I would've loved a few chapters on Gina's father, General, who has to leave his daughter for his country. We are given snippets but that feels incomplete. He leaves his daughter in a prison-like school so that she won't be captured by Nazis and used as a tool to get his accomplices. Szabó in an interview with HLO says that she (and other members of New Moon) decided to not have children to avoid the same thing in the hands of the communist regime. I can feel that fear and anxiety whenever General makes his appearance. So I am not complaining about it.


Though the story is about Gina Vitay, Abigail plays a major role here. The legend is that the statue named Abigail will help the girls in need if they drop a letter in her pitcher. It is obvious that there is a person behind this but we are not brought into the heart of the mystery. I was guessing who Abigail might be and ecstatic when I was right. I also liked Kalmar, the handsome teacher of Matula (imagined Tom Hiddleston throughout) and Sussanna, the prefect in charge of Gina's class. Konig is portrayed as a cowardly teacher. Gedeon Tormar, the formiddable director. Mitsi Horn, a former pupil, is now the 'Grand Dame' of the town. They all will be with me for a long time.


This book bought me so many memories of my teenage years. The immaturity, hastiness, moody and anxiety all came in waves. I remembered the times when I was exactly like Gina and purposefully hurt people out of pettiness but realised it later. I am still immature but that is not the point. The immature teenager is under the control of the inner old lady. So I am managing these days. With all that said, don't go into this book expecting a great trauma story of the war that will make you cry buckets. This story makes you cry, laugh, frustrated and facepalm so hard that you get dizzy. Read this book for its simple and charismatic prose. And of course for the resilience of Szabó used her writing as a form of deviance against the oppressors.

My mother never left a chance to remind me how safe I am compared to other women. She never left a chance to remind me that I have 'given' a lot of freedom to do things and I must not abuse my freedom. And this concept of freedom has always been used as a reward. Like training a dog with treats for good behaviour, I was 'provided freedom' to do things when I was mute and unquestioning. And the moment I started questioning, the freedom was taken away.


My school had this habit of awarding 'best student of the year' to one student across all grades every year. It's a great honour for us to receive that award. I used to work hard to score good marks to be at the top of my class. I even did sports, which I loathed, for this stupid award. At the end of the year, I was pretty hopeful that I would get the prize. I mean, I have worked hard. But, no surprises here, I didn't get it. When I asked my teacher about it later, she told me that I was boisterous and stubborn and I talk back which shows that I am yet to develop discipline. I was 10. I still nurse the wound of not getting that prize when I worked so hard for it.


It is after that episode that I officially gave up being nice. And wherever I go, it has always caused me problems with the authorities. My professor was once kind enough to let me know that I will achieve nothing with my mouth running loose. While he has no problems with boys talking back, he schooled me how to be a good Hindu girl. I have always asserted my right to choose. I have always asserted my voice. I am loud and boisterous. Even if it led to beating me or hating me, I have never deterred. Because, my voice, my rights, and my freedom are worth more than whatever fight I had to put up with. I had this notion from a very young age but I was distracted by my own hypocrisy and biases.


Reading Fearless Freedom has been exhilarating. I have read so many things that are happening in our home and the outside as well that are disguised as 'normal.' I realized that the things which are done to us because I care about you are not about care at all. It is about the control they can exert over me. And I finally understood why all the authority figures in my life have been angry with me. When I assert my rights and voice my opinions, they lose the control they can exert which makes their veins throb with rage. The violence and threats are a result of this loss of control and never for my own good.


We are taught this stereotypical image of how a woman should be and how she should respond. We see it everywhere. There's no denying that. From custodial confinement to love jihad to military rape to femicides, we see violence and crimes against women as a form of upholding patriarchal honour. Using women as a ploy to satisfy the need to commit violence and perpetrate violence. The author shows us examples from all over the country and draws parallels to many international movements. The results are hopeful in some cases but most devastating. We are shown how women are just a shell of their former selves. We are shown how these caste hierarchies help in the exploitation of a woman's dignity. We are shown about the various propaganda that spews hate towards women, LGBTQIA folks and other minorities.


The author connects the political agenda and feminism and how these political agendas inflict a lifetime of trauma on the affected people. Catherine Malabou, a French philosopher, says, "We must all of us recognize that we might, one day, become someone else, an absolute other, someone who will never be reconciled with them-selves again, someone who will be this form of us without redemption or atonement, without last wishes, this damned form, outside of time." We all talk about the trauma of war. Trauma, caused by catastrophes or even a loss of a person close to us. But are we talking enough about the trauma of losing one's self? The trauma of being oppressed in our own home, by our own parents, siblings, husband, and eventually our children. The trauma inflicted by patriarchy.


Read Fearless Freedom not because it's about feminism but because it teaches how to be a feminist. It teaches us how to look at the bigger picture. It teaches us how to look past the bullshit of patriarchy. The only thing I felt lacking in this book is that there are very few instances of how men get affected by the same patriarchy. Other than that, this book is the perfect gem you were looking for to learn about Indian Feminism with a universal view.

"Oh, this planet was a good one. And we, too, were good, as good as the burn of the sun and the rain’s sting and the smell of living soil, the all-over song of endless solutions signing the air of a changing world that by every calculation ought never to have been."

Bewilderment is the book that will make your mind run in a circle with thoughts. I was not at all interested in this book at first but the moment I have spotted astrobiology in the blurb, I am a goner. It was the dream of baby Jayasri to be an astrobiologist and work in NASA. But when I saw the amount of physics I have to deal with in high school, I bid goodbye to that dream. Oh well, at least all the random facts I collected even after my farewell to the dream helped me understand this book.

At the core, we have a father and son who are struggling to cope with the loss of Aly. Aly, an animal rights activist who dies in a car accident, is a constant part of the lives of Theo and Robin. As Theo doesn't want to medicate Robin with drugs, he opts for a neural feedback therapy that uses fMRI and brain mapping. After this therapy, we do see visible changes in Robin but what will happen when the treatment is interrupted?

This book reminded me a lot of Weather by Jenny Offill. I forgot much of the plot of that book, but the same claustrophobic political atmosphere can be observed here too. Set in a near-future society, Powers through Robin is asking us to think about what are we doing to our planet? Using the Fermi paradox as a device, Powers explores what is the point of hope when everything seems hopeless? To pace visibly distressed Robin, Theo creates alternative universes using his models. What first starts as a refreshing activity, soon turns into a feverish prayer to find hope that life can be found even in uninhabitable places.

Through Robin's eyes, we see the devastating state of our earth, which made me question what are we going to leave for our next generation. I can't help but observe a Sisyphean quality in the book. The book starts and nearly ends at the same point as a boulder pushed through the mountain. And it made me realize that the life we make between the ups and downs is what matters. The goal is not important but the journey and the impact we make in the journey is what makes one's life meaningful, isn't it?

The second part of the book is surprisingly political. Yes! The scientific jargon was there but the tension created by politics and politicians was so palpable. I couldn't help but compare the political situation in the book with our current situation. It felt surreal to even think about it. Also, I cannot ignore the philosophical undertone in these political scenarios that made me go down a thought spiral. Yet another example of how politicians use their powers to do anything. They don't care about what or who is affected. The greed for power that often affects the common man is not visible because let's face it, the common man was not the concern.

I am amazed by the sheer brilliance of science in this book. Neuroscience has always been my favourite field to explore and astrobiology is an equally interesting field. Combine these with politics and a dash of philosophical undertone, this book is a perfect blend for speculation lovers. It has everything. Myth, metaphysics, evolution, ecocide and love. The love this family share is so sweet to read. I was a crying mess as I read this. From the first chapter till the last, it made me constantly think of my daddy and the times we worked in our garden. I cried, cried, cried and cried some more as I finished the last chapter. And like I previously said, I cannot ignore the Sisyphean quality the story takes. But then again, people leave, people, die but life goes on always. There's a sliver of sunshine even in the darkness after all.

In three words, this book is 'compact, but planetary'.

Thank you for the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with the review copy.

"Where to begin? At the beginning, of course. But where is the beginning? I don’t know where in the past to insert a marker that says: here. Here is where the flight began. Because the beginning is in memory, not on a map."

If you ask me to write a review for Great Circle, you will find me scratching my head and circling back to a point of beginning. But like the quote says, the beginning is in memory, not on a map and certainly not on my notes app. To say that I struggled finishing this book won't be an exaggeration. The dual timeline with a lot of new information that I am not aware of and a whole set of violence, this book took me on a roller coaster ride.

It all began with a ship. A ship that bears the name of a mistress, gives Matilda Feiffer heartache. The ship where Addison Graves will find Annabel who is haunted by the trauma of her past. The ship that saw the birth of Marian and Jamie and to avoid their death in that, Addison made a leap that cost him his life.

But we are shown that both the beginning and the end doesn't matter, it's the journey that matters. And what a journey it was! Marian, with her longing to fly, got herself into an abusive marriage. Then fleed to Alaska to hide from her husband. Jamie, who wanted to leave but can't leave stuck in a past that will never become a present or future, just floats away from his life like a jellyfish. And Caleb, oh my Caleb, a free spirit, does live his life as one till the end.

Now add this with the present timeline of Hadley Baxter, who was fired after a scandalous affair from the Archangel series (imagine Twilight×50 shades of Grey) and cast to act as Marian in an indie movie, we have one exploding book.

This book is a complex mess of emotions. There is a lot of violence and abuse and rape that made me want to throw it away and call it a day. But I am glad that I didn't.  Like everyone else, I like me some good melodrama but too much too soon is just a lot to take. There is a mention of child molestation on one page that is followed by the postnatal depression caused by molestation. There is a shipwreck that is followed by a plane wreck in consecutive chapters. As I said, it's a lot to take.

Also, what's with the casual violence? Let it be the bootlegging Barclay or gambling Wallace, the violence is never-ending. And how can I forget the descriptions of battles? It was bloody, gory, and messy. Reading it made me a bit unsteady. I had to take long breaks in between to refresh my mind. I have read a few reviews in Goodreads that said they didn't like how sexually open the women in this book are. But, I didn't mind these sexual expeditions because honestly, who am I to judge? When you are in a situation to feel anything that resembles a human contact, or shadows love, you use every viable option. And to the kids like Marian, Jamie and Hadley, even Caleb, sex ended up being a form of coping mechanism.

I enjoyed ATA pilot training chapters of Marian and her giddy romance with Ruth. But then again, it ended so soon that gave me whiplash. The humans here are completely connected. Every character has significance and helps in the advancement of the plot. One thing I appreciate about the book is that the violence, abuses and molestation are not there for the sole purpose of advancing character development. It didn't make the characters hard to emotion and turn into a robot. Instead, it made them more human and soft. It's exhausting to see this trope everywhere and I am glad that it didn't come to that. And this is all only about the first 500 pages.

It is the last 100 pages that hold the true essence of the Great Circle. In these pages, we see Marian's expedition around the world that is often mentioned in every other chapter in this book. What a journey! The sea, the ice, the aurora, the landings and takeoffs in impossible weather, it just flew. I didn't even know when it ended and I was in tears when it did. The book really did come into a great circle tying all the loose ends into a neat little bow. And boy was I glad to be sticking through all the violence!

I must say I didn't like this book at the start. Maybe it's because I am more susceptible to put myself in the place of the character.  It had me thinking that how a woman's life is always shaped by the pain she endures, both physical and emotional. And how men are expected to fight a different battle altogether. It made me angry, frustrated but also sad. But then, when I finished this book, I can't stop thinking about it. The impact is huge on me and it'll be with me for a long time.

Overall, it is a book that has five different books in it. And it needs all your patience to get to the part where it gets interesting. But as Marian says, the begging and end don't matter, only the journey. Though the journey is taxing, the joy after finishing it knows no bounds. With my ramblings coming to an end, it's safe to say that I loved this book to death and I beg you to go and read it.

TW: Child loss, Grief and grief shaming



Please read with caution if you have been dealing with grief. I am going to get super personal and share one of the messier memories.





On the day I had to terminate my pregnancy, I was there lying on the bed with my mobile in hand. It was the day of the US Election result. I was obsessively hooked on the outcome of the result more than the contractions. It was a much-wanted baby but had to terminate the pregnancy because, well, genetic defects. I was devastated and looking for a distraction and the lifesaving internet saved me, as always.





I watched everything I can that day. From memes to stories to YouTube to Election results, I watched and read everything to keep my mind off. Why I am sharing this here is this book deals with a similar concept differently but ended with a similar outcome. While I had the means to terminate the pregnancy because the baby is going to die anyway, they didn't. Why you may ask, it is of course because of the law created by men to control women's bodies (supported by some women too). But then again, I might be talking for myself because any little time with the little one is precious and they get to have that while I opted not to.





No One Is Talking About This is divided into two parts. Part 1 sounded more absurd with its whole meme culture and random things, like every other thing we see on the internet by extent, the internet itself. The reference to memes and viral videos, posts and tweets did get tiresome after a few pages. It felt as if the story is moving directionless.





In my opinion, Part 2 brought out the full essence of the book. The paragraphs in both the parts were rather short, tweet-sized things. But it conveys many more things than what it shows. The loss, pain, grief of losing a child felt so close. I thought of DNFing at that point, but I kept on reading. It's been nearly a year and I am okay at this moment. Even with a good second part, I felt as if something is missing from the book. Something vital that makes the crux of any book.





Maybe, I am too traditional to enjoy its modern structure. Overall, No One Is Talking About This is a book that talks about what everybody is talking about at the surface. The banality of the everyday chores, the internet culture that makes a mole into a mountain and a mountain a mole, the memes that we use to describe our feelings instead of confronting them, talks about everything yet nothing at the same time. It would've been a different scenario if I am more present on the internet but I am not which makes it a tiresome read. So now I have a book that I enjoyed at certain places. 

I am disturbed by this book. It is such a short book, with relatively easy prose and yet, here I am, disturbed by it. An Island follows Samuel, a lighthouse keeper who lives in exile and detached from the mainland except for the supply refills every fortnight. He usually finds bodies washing up the shore and buries them using chipped rocks. Just another Tuesday in his life.



There is a shift in this mundanity when Samuel finds a washed-up person alive instead of dead. We can feel a coldness creeping into the narrative right from this point. Samuel is so used to have the island for himself starts to get paranoid with a new man present along with a whole lot of memories from his past.



What I found interesting about the book is the layer of events and characters. Jennings in her interview with the Guardian said that she had the whole of the African continent in her mind while writing the story. And we can see the traces of it everywhere. Like a boomerang, it goes forth between democracy and dictatorship and democracy in a post-colonial world. I sensed a detachment in the narrative that made me uncomfortable. Samuel is an interesting character. His life is continually shaped and marked by acts of violence and yet we find him hesitating in committing violent acts.



His involvement in the struggle for independence that later leads to his incarceration seems forced and unclear. Samuel is a common man, comfortable in his cowardice and can be influenced easily by others. At one point, he admits that he has been faithful only to himself. This complex mix of traits made his character look standoffish? I don't know how to put it in words. And there is this interesting connection I made between Samuel and the dictator. In many ways, the character of the dictator felt opposite to Samuel's connected only by their paranoia.



While the dictator's wish of having the mainland to himself was quashed, Samuel had got the land to himself. In my opinion, this is the story of how a common man treats the "other" when given a chance and of course, when he has an upper hand in the situation. The way Jennings has written refugee crisis feels close to home and universal at the same time. We had a similar situation in India that put refugees in a difficult situation (read: humanitarian crisis) with media feeding into the paranoia of people.



And the main reason why I felt uncomfortable with the book is, it kind of brought out my own biases and hypocrisy. It also brought out the violence that lies dormant in most people that shows its head only when they know they will not be punished for it. Because that's what happened with Samuel and I so didn't see that end coming.



With that all said, I can see why this didn't make it into the shortlist. Another year, it could've. But with all the tomes this year, this one fell just a little flat. 

I really tried to read this book. I really tried. But paedophilia is just overwhelming. It is not even mentioned as past but the story in itself is based on paedophilia. And the blatant sexualization of a child's body is unacceptable in my opinion. I cannot get over the fact that the father himself is using his daughter as some object. Maybe it is me. But I am not reading this book again ever.

I was 10 maybe 11 when I first came across a write up on Slave Breeding. It was a magazine that is definitely for adults but I read it anyway. I didn't understand the whole context except that the babies are taken away from their mothers as soon as they are born. Some of them even went to the extent of mixing up babies so they won't know who is who to avoid complications when they are sold in the future. Needless to say, that impacted me a lot and to this date, I have not done any fact-checking in the fear of finding something that will make me cry. Of course, no one deserves enslavement but that had been the norm for centuries.



The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois (Love Songs hereafter) is a book that makes you laugh, cry, rage, frustrate, make you go all mushy and rage again with all of its 800 pages. It is not only a black feminist novel but also a history lesson of the antebellum USA that extends to the near past. As for a book that intimidates with its size, Love Songs is surprisingly intimate. At the crux of this story is the women. Let it be the first-ever woman Nila or the latest of the Ailey, every single woman in this book stands out whether they've given voice or not. And I especially loved Belle who is a badass.



Centuries may be different, scenarios may be different but the struggles faced by these women were similar. Their experiences as a woman of colour in a predominantly white setting and their experiences as an enslaved woman in the pre-civil war era, made me think a lot about my privilege as a woman who hasn't faced anything as near as those horrors. It also made me think about how casually we throw around the words slaves and slaving when we don't even know an ounce of those experiences.



The story is mostly told by Ailey Garfield and occasionally by Belle and Lydia. I loved the parts of their summer drives to Chicasetta which unlocked the new level of memories in my mind to the point I started smelling Jack Fruits out of nowhere. They were tender, fun but full of traces of the past. Chicasetta is also the place where Ailey's ancestors were brutally enslaved. It is also the land that previously belonged to the Creek people that was stolen from them by various laws and treaties.



And then we have Uncle Root, Ailey's great-granduncle, a historian also a professor who dedicated 3/4th of his life to the Routledge University, a great admirer of Du Bois and his principles just stole my heart. True to his profession, Uncle Root is a great source of knowledge and experiences that we can glimpse throughout the book. I am more of Ailey when it comes to him. Can't help but love and adore the old man.



Another thing that I loved about the book is the amount of work and research put in by Jeffers. All those 11 years of archival research with equal importance to black feminism makes this a book that blows our mind. And I particularly enjoyed the last portion where Ailey was deep in similar archival research tracing her family line and when the connection was made (which I guessed all along), it was exhilarating. Uncle Root's tips for studying journals is a lifesaver for academics of any field. I can feel the internalized racism through the pages.



Lydia, Ailey's sister, has been on an interesting tangent. Throughout her life, Jeffers exploited the effects of the addiction and I am immediately reminded of Gifty from Transcendent Kingdom. All 3 Garfield sisters have been molested by their grandfather (a paedophile) which went undetected and caused serious psychological trauma to them. And it is yet another example of how we don't see things or refuse to see things (as in the case of their grandmother) we don't want to see. The interesting thing is each sister had a different reaction to the trauma that didn't end fruitful for Lydia. I have read a Goodreads review where a woman of colour has written, 'every one of us knows at least one Lydia in our circle' and it made me so sad.



If I want to talk about something that made my blood boil, it has to be about the sexual exploitation of enslaved people. Men, women, boys and girls were treated as a commodity for their master to use. When I read about the Weeping Time Slave Auction, I can't control my anger but spewing some expletives. And the fact that African Americans and indigenous people are treated as 'others' is pure hypocrisy. But who am I kidding here when I am from a country that prioritizes caste over everything and treats lower caste people as vermin and equally hypocritical?



I would like to say that there is a lot of sexual violence, paedophiles preying on kids and physical violence that cannot be separated when we are talking about the history of afro-indigenous people. I also have to read it soon to grasp the full political details because I was too reluctant to drop this book to search. This review still feels incomplete as there are a lot of topics Jeffers has touched, but I am forcing myself to stop writing more. And it's a shocker that Love Songs is not on the NBA shortlist. I will visit this book soon and write a more fitting impression. Jeffers, it's been an absolute pleasure to be in the company of your writing.

3.5 rounded to 4

To simplify, this is the story of Nell who was swapped as a baby when born. The swapping was not intentional but the carelessness of the hospital staff. Nell discovers this secret after her father passes away and her mom struggling with dementia. So she has to grapple with the sense of identity, her place in the family she has known all her life and grief.

I must say this book has been an interesting ride. Grief is the major theme. Losing one's parent to the unknown as well as losing a baby to SIDS aka Cot Death. So I would advise you to read with caution. I really liked the writing.

Despite dealing with heavy topics, it felt light, natural and sort of mysterious. I did enjoyed this book a lot which is unexpected. I particularly like the ending which lead to numerous possibilities. Overall, do give it a read when you want are in the mood to contemplate.

Thank you NetGalley and Amazon Publishing UK for the ARC.