Synopses & Reviews
“This is a story intimately and compassionately toldagainst the sensuous background of everyday life in Bombay.” —Washington Post Book World
“Bracingly honest.” —New York Times Book Review
The author of Bombay Time,If Today Be Sweet, and The Weight of Heaven, Thrity Umrigar is at adept andcompelling in The Space Between Us—vividlycapturing the social struggles of modern India in a luminous, addictivelyreadable novel of honor, tradition, class, gender, and family. A portrayal oftwo woman discovering an emotional rapport as they struggle against theconfines of a rigid caste system, Umrigarscaptivating second novel echoes the timeless intensity of ZoraNeale Hurstons Their Eyes Were WatchingGod, Betty Smiths A Tree Grows inBrooklyn, and Barbara Kingsolvers ThePoisonwood Bible—a quintessential triumph of modern literary fiction.
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“Heartbreaking.... A subtle, elegant analysis of class and power... that quietly roars against tyranny.” Kirkus Reviews
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“Sadness suffuses this eloquent tale, whose heart-stopping plot twists reveal the ferocity of fate.” Booklist (starred review)
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“[Umrigar] displays an impressive talent for conceiving multidimensional, sympathetic characters with life-like emotional quandaries and psychological stumbling blocks.” Washington Post Book World, Praise for Bombay Time
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“With humanity and suspense, novelist Thrity Umrigar tackles love, loyalty, injustice - and survival.” Marie Claire
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“Poignant.” Entertainment Weekly
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“[A] powerful novel.” National Post (Canada)
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“Umrigar is a highly skilled storyteller...the novels plot and depth of characterisation provide irresistible momentum.” Time Out New York
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“Intimately and compassionately told.... Sensuous.... Umrigars memorable characters will live on for a long time.” Frances Itani, Washington Post Book World
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“Umrigar is a perceptive and often piercing writer.” New York Times Book Review
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“[The Space Between Us] is provocative and disturbing.” Boston Globe
Synopsis
"This is a story intimately and compassionately toldagainst the sensuous background of everyday life in Bombay." --Washington Post Book World
"Bracingly honest." --New York Times Book Review
The author of Bombay Time, If Today Be Sweet, and The Weight of Heaven, Thrity Umrigar is at adept andcompelling in The Space Between Us--vividlycapturing the social struggles of modern India in a luminous, addictivelyreadable novel of honor, tradition, class, gender, and family. A portrayal oftwo woman discovering an emotional rapport as they struggle against theconfines of a rigid caste system, Umrigar'scaptivating second novel echoes the timeless intensity of ZoraNeale Hurston's Their Eyes Were WatchingGod, Betty Smith's A Tree Grows inBrooklyn, and Barbara Kingsolver's ThePoisonwood Bible--a quintessential triumph of modern literary fiction.
Synopsis
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.
About the Author
Thrity Umrigar is the author of five other novels—The World We Found, The Weight of Heaven, The Space Between Us, If Today Be Sweet, and Bombay Time—and the memoir First Darling of the Morning. An award-winning journalist, she has been a contributor to the Washington Post, Boston Globe, and Huffington Post, among other publications. She is the winner of the Nieman Fellowship to Harvard, Cleveland Arts Prize, and Seth Rosenberg Prize, and is the Armington Professor of English at Case-Western Reserve University.