Ruby Red Skies

by Taslim Burkowicz, Nisha Ahuja (Narrator)

Ruby used to be a fiery, sexy, musical genius. But when she got pregnant as a teenager in the '90s, her life took a turn into banality. Now a middle-aged Indo-Canadian woman, she feels unseen and unheard by her white husband and struggles to communicate with her mixed-race daughter. When she discovers her husband cheating, she embarks on a quest to unearth exciting secrets from her past. To find what she needs, she drives straight into B.C.’s raging wildfires, accompanied only by the fantastical stories her mother used to tell about their ancient Mughal ancestry—a dancer named Rubina who lived in the concubine quarters of the great Agra Fort. This book is at once historical fiction and political romance, deftly navigating themes of mixed-race relationships, climate change, motherhood, body shame, death and the passage of time.

PLEASE When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

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First published October 10, 2022

About the author

Taslim Burkowicz’s work is inspired both by her Indo-Canadian heritage, as well as her global travels and experiences. Her first novel, Chocolate Cherry Chai, was listed on CBC Books’ 2017 Fall Preview list. She has a bachelor’s degree in political science and education from Simon Fraser University. Taslim resides with her husband and three boys in Surrey, B.C., where she focuses on writing, running and dancing.

Reviews

[Em Zaporozan · Rating 2 out of 5]

My god. This book was… not good. Maybe it was the too-familiar suburban references outside of Vancouver (I grew up there and despite the familiarity, it made me cringe and nauseous at times), the ableist (and yet aware of ableism!?) debate over keeping a neurodivergeng baby or not, the rampant fatphobia and general shallow-mindedness throughout, or the veiled racism slipped in here and there that seemed to go unchallenged even by the Indian characters. It could also have been the flatness and lack of depth of arguably every character, or the way the author tried to fit about a thousand issues into a 300-page novel, somehow making all of them eye-roll-worthy in their lack of complexity.

And then there were the conversations between characters that somehow made no sense with the story and yet filled pages, whereas moments that (at least I felt) deserved to be fleshed out and detailed, were rushed over. Not to mention the editing of this book was bad, so many simple errors (using “their” instead of “they’re”?! REALLY??).

Anyway. The premise wasn’t bad, which is why I picked up the book in the first place, and the only reason I didn’t give this a single star. With more maturity as a writer and a better editor, this book could have been good. But as it is, this story was a full-on mess and truly fell apart before it could properly come together. And the cover art is great, but truly one of its only redeeming qualities.

[Rowan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think this is a great book if you’re looking for Indian historical fiction which is one part of the story with Rubina set in the 1600s. While the other part of the story is about Ruby, an Indian Canadian woman whose mother named her after Rubina and her and her family’s life mainly in 2017. The story goes back and forth from Rubina’s story/POV to Ruby’s story/POV and sometimes her families POV as well. The historical aspect of the story connects a few times to the current timeline of Ruby’s life which was really interesting seeing it all unfold and the prevalence of Rubina and her history to Ruby and her life. I had high hopes for this book, the cover really drew me to it and then the description of the book made me really want to read it. I think it’s a really good book, just wasn’t for me. I wasn’t as into the historical aspect of the book like I was hoping, some parts were interesting like learning more about some aspects of Indian culture but I sometimes found myself bored and just uninterested in it and didn’t get at times why this part of the book was such a big part of the story…I wanted more from the “main” story and character of Ruby and found the end hopeful and sweet but a little unsatisfying and felt like she could have done more with Ruby’s story. I also found Ruby, her family and her friend all kind of I unlikeable characters for many reasons yet I still wanted to know more about them all. I didn’t really like any of them and was hoping that they would get redeemed or something by the end but they didn’t…and Ruby’s character was hard for me to read since sometimes I just wanted to shake her and tell her to wake up and do something with herself and her life and it takes her so long to do anything and I hate how the story felt unfinished for Ruby and her daughter with the whole dad situation (don’t want to put spoilers). Ruby’s husband and daughter were always so awful to her and even her best friend betrays her too. You always feel so bad for Ruby and it was nice to see her have a wake up call and start to change. This book put me in a bit of a reading slump and I almost DNF it many times. But I do like the authors writing style and know that this will be a great read for many people..

[Sumana Gupta · Rating 3 out of 5]

Such mixed feelings about this book. Loved it so much at times, and that others was really not vibing with it.

It’s told in two different timelines, modern and historical. The historical timeline is written in a distinctly different prose, so I had trouble finding a flow when reading. Ultimately, the thematic parallels the author created were really satisfying to unspool, so I felt to be a solid 3.5.

[Chrissy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Book review coming to @bookznbeauty Insta soon!
Loved reading about my own backyard (BC) and learning about a historical period in India I, admittedly, knew nothing about. LOVED Taslim’s The Desirable Sister and enjoyed this as well!

[Anson Tong · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thought the book was easy to read and brought up a lot of good concepts that I would have never thought about. I know it's fiction but it gets you thinking.

[Vida Mia · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed the novel and it was very well written.