I am not going to say much right now since we are not discussing this book until October. But, I could not put it down. Val gave it to me yesterday and I finished this evening! Secret Daughter, by Shilpi Somaya Gowda |
I forgot to come back and finish writing about this captivating novel. This book follows the story of a woman in India who, after her first daughter was killed right after birth for being a girl (at the command of her husband, no less), takes her second daughter to an orphanage in the city to save her life. It also follows the story of a woman in California who meets, falls in love with, and marries a man from India. They are not able to have children and so they adopt a baby girl from an orphanage in India. And, you guessed it, the daughter they adopt is the same baby the woman in India placed in the orphanage. We also follow the life of the little girl, all grown up, trying to figure out who she is.
We discussed many life issues after reading Secret Sister. First and foremost, we talked about the social conditions around the world that devalue women so much so that female infants are killed strictly because of their gender. We talked about infertility, marital issues, extended family relationships, cross-cultural marriages, career paths, addictions, forgiveness, duty, yoga, communication, poverty, drug dealing, adoption and searching for birth parents, hope and redemption. Mainly we talked about the influence of mothers in every culture and what a mother's love can accomplish.
One of the interesting things about this novel is that it doesn't have a cookie cutter, wrap everything up ending. While the young woman identified her birth parents and sent them a special gift, they never actually ended up meeting.
One of our group members wrote a blog entry, A Vote for Freedom, about election day and our freedom and right to vote and referenced this book. She also forwarded her writing to the author and received a very nice reply. Great first novel!