I liked the slice-of-life feeling of the village and characters but there was no action or plot. Which is ok except the idea of the mail delivered many years after Partition was a great device and the author dropped the ball on that.

Kiran Desai writes lush, complex prose and uses her very human and fallible characters to tell not only their own story, but the larger story of striving for Gorkkhaland. One of the best passages I've read about how the wealthy don't see the poor and the poor despise the wealthy. No one gets off easy but everyone gets a hearing.

Constricted horizons make life small and limited for Uma and unwanted expectations paralyze her brother Arun. Anita Desai writes lovely prose in this story of a daughter who is not valued and a son who doesn't want the attention lavished on him.

Enjoyed this story of a young man with little ambition who inadvertently becomes a holy man--sort of a Dr Strangelove situation. Since I read Inheritance of Loss ( by the same author) first, I could see how she has grown as an author. But this was enjoyable and sometimes funny.

Badani follows five women in an Indian-American family that have been damaged by the physical and emotional abuse of the family's patriarch. Each one's story is unique and nuanced. I thought it wrapped up a little too neatly, especially with much of the hope coming from the "good" men in the story. But the family secrets to be revealed kept me reading eagerly until the end.