Synopses & Reviews
Out of the rich culture of India and the brutal drama of the 1947 Partition comes this lush and eloquent debut novel about two women married to the same man.
Roop is a young girl whose mother has died and whose father is deep in debt. So
she is elated to learn she is to become the second wife of a wealthy Sikh landowner in a union beneficial to both. For Sardajis first wife, Satya, has failed to bear him children. Roop believes that she and Satya, still very much in residence, will be friends. But the relationship between the older and younger woman is far more complex. And, as India lurches toward independence, Sardarji struggles to find his place amidst the drastic changes.
Meticulously researched and beautifully written, What the Body Remembers is at once poetic, political, feminist, and sensual.
Review
"Baldwin's novel is set in the Punjab during the years leading to India's Independence, and partition, in 1947.By focusing on a Sikh family, What the Body Remembers manages to provide a different perspective on that tragic and brutal period which so often is expressed in terms of the confrontation of Hindus and Muslims. The viewpoint is, as well, a feminist one: the two central characters are the middle- and teen-aged wives of a wealthy Sikh landowner. The dilemma of these women, caught in a struggle for the favor of an aloof husband, becomes a metaphor for the Indian subcontinent itself, riven by the divide-and-rule policy of its British overlords. Baldwin adds a fresh voice to the extraordinary generation of writers of Indian origin who have contributed so profoundly to English literature." Reviewed by Andrew Witmer, Virginia Quarterly Review (Copyright 2006 Virginia Quarterly Review)
About the Author
Shauna Singh Baldwin was born in Montreal and grew up in India. A former polo player and radio producer, she is presently an e-commerce consultant and lives with her Irish-American husband in Milwaukee. She is the author of
English Lessons and Other Stories and coauthor of
A Foreign Visitor's Survival Guide to North America. Her short stories have been published widely and have won numerous prestigious literary prizes in the United States, Canada, and India. The story "Satya," which was to become
What the Body Remembers, was awarded the Saturday Night/CBC Literary Prize and was nominated for a National Magazine Award in Canada.
From the Hardcover edition.