Sister of My Heart - Hardcover

Divakaruni, Chitra Banerjee

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0385489501 ISBN 13: 9780385489508

Publisher: Doubleday, 1999

Synopsis

Anju is the daughter of an upper-caste Calcutta family of distinction. Sudha is the daughter of the black sheep of that same family. Sudha is startlingly beautiful; Anju is not. Despite these differences, since the day the two girls were born - the same day their fathers died, mysteriously and violentlySudha and Anju have been sisters of the heart.
When Sudha learns a dark family secret, that connection is threatened. For the first time in their lives, the girls know what it is to feel suspicion and distrust - Sudha, because she feels a new shame that she cannot share with Anju; and Anju, because she discovers the seductive power of her sister's beauty, a power Sudha herself is incapable of controlling. When, due to a change in family fortune, the girls are urged into arranged marriages, their lives take opposite turns. One travels to America, and one remains in India; both have lives of secrets. When tragedy strikes both of them, however, they discover that, despite distance and marriage, they must turn to each other once again.

About this title

Review:

Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni made an indelible impression on the literary world with her first novel, The Mistress of Spices, a magical tale of love and herbs. Sister of My Heart is less reliant on enchantment but no less enchanting as it tells the tale of two cousins born on the same day, their premature births brought on by a mysterious occurrence that claims the lives of both their fathers. Sudha is beautiful, Anju is not; yet the girls love each other as sisters, the bond between them so strong it seems nothing can break it. When both are pushed into arranged marriages, however, each discovers a devastating secret that changes their relationship forever.

Sister of My Heart spans many years and zigzags between India and America as the cousins first grow apart and then eventually reunite. Divakaruni invests this domestic drama with poetry as she traces her heroines' lives from infancy to motherhood, but it is Sudha and Anju who give the story its backbone. Anju might speak for both when she says: "In spite of all my insecurities, in spite of the oceans that'll be between us soon and the men that are between us already, I can never stop loving Sudha. It's my habit, and it's my fate." Book- lovers may well discover that reading Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni is habit-forming as well. --Margaret Prior

Review:

"'Magically affecting...her intricate tapestry of old and new worlds shines with a rare luminosity'" (San Diego Union Tribune)

"'Divakaruni strikes a delicate balance between realism and fantasy...a touching celebration of enduring love'" (The Sunday Times)

"'A pleasure to read...a novel fragrant in rhythm and language'" (San Francisco Chronicle)

"'Divakaruni's books possess a power that is both transporting and healing...serious and entrancing'" (Booklist)

About this edition

• Publisher: Doubleday
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 0385489501
• ISBN 13: 9780385489508
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 322