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34 of 34 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Extraordinary and universal, 3 Sep 2005
This is a rare thing: a novel that sticks in the mind long after you finish the last page. It is beautifully written, with a story that is fascinating in so many ways. Yet it is set in the real world; not just a real place and time, but one that feels real, seeping out of the pages to envelope the reader.I picked up this novel as part of a triple pack (a Faber 'threebie') of Indian writers. I don't have an Indian background, and I've never visited India - I just read alot, and I like reading different kinds of books. The package looked like a literary bargain, and it was - it was well worth the price just for this one novel, which I doubt I would have discovered in any other way. "Difficult Daughters" is a fascinating insight into many things: into history; into a distant culture; but, most importantly, into human hearts and minds. To an Anglo-Saxon reader, the distance in time and place may, on one level, make this escapist novel; but on another level it does what all the best escapist (or fantasy) novels do: it makes you look inside yourself. Despite being set during the Indian Partition, this is not an overtly political novel. However, a surprising amount of information about Partition - the political crisis that literally tore apart a nation - is imparted. Enough information to make this reader curious enough to investigate further...
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by Manju Kapur
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