Sister Of My Heart

A dazzling panoramic novel set in India and America from the author of THE MISTRESS OF SPICES.

Born in India, Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni lives near San Francisco with her husband and two children. She teaches creative writing at a local college, and is the coordinator for a helpline for South Asian women. She is the author of several award-winning volumes of poetry, as well as Arranged Marriage, her acclaimed collection of short stories, a bestseller in America and winner of the PEN Oakland Josephine Miles Prize for fiction, an American Book Award, and the Bay Area Book Reviewers Award for fiction. She is also the author of two novels, The Mistress of Spices and Sister of My Heart.

Born in a big old Calcutta house on the same night, the wild, tragic night both their fathers were mysteriously lost, Sudha and Anju are cousins. Closer even than sisters, they share clothes, possessions, worries, dreams - and three mothers, who preside over the matriarchal Chatterjee household where the cousins grow up, cocooned in a timeless world of feminine lore. But when Sudha learns a terrible secret about the past, and hides it from her cousin, and then when Anju discovers the sister of her heart is secretly nurturing a forbidden love, their mutual loyalty is sorely tested. 
 
As the day of leaving school draws near, a family crisis forces the cousins to abandon their university plans, and their mothers swiftly start the serious business of arranging their marriages to the sons of suitable families. And thus the inseparable pair is torn apart: Sudha moves to her new family's home in rural Bengal, while Anju joins her immigrant husband in California. But although they have both been trained to be perfect wives, nothing has prepared them for the great challenges, for the pain as well as the joy, that each will have to face in her new life. 
 
Compelling and passionate, rooted in Indian folklore and steeped in the mysticism of ancient tales, this bright, jewel-like novel shines its light on the bonds of family, on love and loss, against a backdrop of the realities of traditional arranged marriages, and the adjustments needed for modern-day life in the West.

Shortlisted for the Women’s Prize

The Mistress Of Spices

Shortlisted for the Womens Prize, an exotic, magical novel of love and the sensuous power of spices.

A dazzling tale of misbegotten dreams and desires, hopes and expectations, woven with poetry and storyteller magic.

I read Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni’s novel The Mistress of Spices and felt excited and empowered by the way she used words

An unusual, clever, and often exquisite first novel...The result is rather as if Isabel Allende met Laura Esquivel.

A splendid novel, beautifully conceived and crafted.

Mythical and mystical, Mistress of Spices is reminiscent of fables and fairy tales. . . . The story Divakaruni tells is transporting, but it is her gift for metaphor that makes this novel live and breathe, its pages as redolent as any freshly ground spice.

For ARRANGED MARRIAGE, 'As irresistible as the impulse which leads her characters to surface to maturity, raising their heads above the floods of silver ignorance'

Born in India, Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni lives near San Francisco with her husband and two children. She teaches creative writing at a local college, and is the coordinator for a helpline for South Asian women. She is the author of several award-winning volumes of poetry, as well as Arranged Marriage, her acclaimed collection of short stories, a bestseller in America and winner of the PEN Oakland Josephine Miles Prize for fiction, an American Book Award, and the Bay Area Book Reviewers Award for fiction. She is also the author of two novels, The Mistress of Spices and Sister of My Heart.

_______________________________ 
 
SHORTLISTED FOR THE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION 
 
'A dazzling tale... woven with poetry and storyteller magic.' AMY TAN 
 
Tilo, an immigrant from India, runs a spice shop in Oakland, California. While she supplies the ingredients for curries and kormas, she also dispenses wisdom and the appropriate spice: for Tilo is a Mistress of Spices, a priestess of the secret magical powers of spices. 
 
To those who visit her shop, Tilo prescribes coriander for the restoration of sight, chilli for the cleansing of evil, fenugreek for the pain of rejection. But when a lonely American ventures into the store, a troubled Tilo cannot find the correct spice, for he arouses in her a forbidden desire - which if she follows will destroy her magical powers. 
 
Compelling and lyrical, full of heady scents and with more than a touch of humour, this novel explores the clash between East and West even as it unveils the universal mysteries of the human heart. 
 
'I felt excited and empowered by the way she used words' NAOMI ALDERMAN, author of THE POWER 
 
'Unusual, clever, and often exquisite' LA Times 
_______________________________

Chitra Divakaruni

As irresistible as the impulse which leads her characters to surface to maturity, raising their heads above the floods of silver ignorance

'Ravishingly beautiflu stories...Divakaruni not only conveys emotions with stunning accuracy, she also transforms the outer world into reflections of the soul'

'These exquisite stories entice us with the author's gift of storytelling and her characters' originality, independence and insight'

'Young and old, male and female, east and west, modern and traditional, all elements blend in this exquisite collection...sensitive, elegant and beautifully descriptive'

The possibility of change, of starting anew, in this stunning beautiful and poignant collection of short stories, is at once terrifying and filled with promise.For those Indian-born women living new lives in America, independence is a mixed blessing.It means walking the tightrope between old treasured beliefs and surprising newfound desires, and understanding the emotions which that conflict brings.Together these stories create a tapestry of existence as colourful, as delicate and as enduring as the finest silk sari.

Chitra Divakaruni

Praise for Arranged Marriage

As irresistible as the impulse which leads her characters to surface to maturity, raising their heads above the floods of silver ignorance

'Ravishingly beautiflu stories...Divakaruni not only conveys emotions with stunning accuracy, she also transforms the outer world into reflections of the soul'

'These exquisite stories entice us with the author's gift of storytelling and her characters' originality, independence and insight'

As irresistible as the impulse which leads her characters to surface to maturity, raising their heads above the floods of silver ignorance

'Ravishingly beautiflu stories...Divakaruni not only conveys emotions with stunning accuracy, she also transforms the outer world into reflections of the soul'

'These exquisite stories entice us with the author's gift of storytelling and her characters' originality, independence and insight'

As irresistible as the impulse which leads her characters to surface to maturity, raising their heads above the floods of silver ignorance

'Ravishingly beautiflu stories...Divakaruni not only conveys emotions with stunning accuracy, she also transforms the outer world into reflections of the soul'

'These exquisite stories entice us with the author's gift of storytelling and her characters' originality, independence and insight'

Books by Chitra Divakaruni

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