An Unrestored Woman: And Other Stories

by Shobha Rao

In An Unrestored Woman, the partition of India and Pakistan in 1947 cuts a jagged path through the lives of ordinary women and men, leaving ripples of sorrow through time and space. Each couplet of stories spans the Indian subcontinent, from refugee camps and torched trains to the spacious verandas of the British Raj, and billows into the wider world. An old woman recounts the murdering of what was most precious to her, and the many small cuts that led her to that act. A girl forced into prostitution wields patience as deftly as a weapon, and manages to escape her fate. An Indian servant falls in love with his employer, and spins a twisted web of deceit.

The characters in these fearless stories stumble - occasionally towards love, more often towards survival - and find that history, above all, is their truest and greatest opponent. And what emerges, in the midst of newly erected barriers, boundaries, and nations, is a journey into the centre of the only place that matters - the human heart.

Genres: Short Stories, Historical Fiction, India, Fiction, Historical, Literary Fiction, Pakistan

257 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 15, 2016

About the author

Shobha Rao moved to the United States from India at the age of seven. She is the author of the short story collection, AN UNRESTORED WOMAN, and the novels, GIRLS BURN BRIGHTER and INDIAN COUNTRY. Rao is the winner of the Katherine Anne Porter Prize in Fiction and was a Grace Paley Teaching Fellow at The New School. Her story “Kavitha and Mustafa” was chosen by T.C. Boyle for inclusion in Best American Short Stories. GIRLS BURN BRIGHTER was long listed for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize and was a finalist for the California Book Award and the Goodreads Choice Awards. She lives in San Francisco.

Reviews

[Brina · Rating 4 out of 5]

An Unrestored Woman is Shobha Rao's debut collection about the shared grief that occurred starting with the 1949 partition of India and Pakistan. Prior to the publication of this novel, one of the stories won inclusion in The Best American Short Stories two years ago. Rao's historical fiction that also gives a voice to in depth, multi-layered characters has gained inclusion in my women's history month lineup.

Creating characters with backstories, Rao allows them to move from one story to the next. As a result the collection reads almost like vignettes in one novel rather than a group of stories. This is first evident in the first two powerful stories, An Unrestored Woman and The Merchant's Mistress. In the first story we meet Neela and Renu on a compound for widows. They forge a relationship bordering on love in their shared grief and then their lives take diverging paths. Renu winds up as a maid for a merchant's wife, becomes the merchant's mistress, and follows him to South Africa to create a new life for herself that would not have been possible as a widow in a Muslim country. Although Renu's story ends here, her tale moves from one of grief to that of hope.

A theme in all of these stories is shared grief either in relationships or over what might have been. During the partition, Hindus and Muslims torched each other's land, killing mainly the men in a religious warfare. We find this in The Opposite of Sex where by changing a map, Mohan not only alters history, but also two countries' opinions of him. In Kavitha and Mustafa, Muslims torch an entire train of Hindus attempting to escape Pakistan. The fact that Kavitha and Mustafa escaped became their secret, and neither spoke of it again. This story, focusing on the bravery of an innocent child, won Rao a short story award.

On top of the grief over the partition and the losses its characters felt, Rao brings a voice to a historical event that is often overlooked in western history books. Rao develops plausible scenarios resulting from this event in stories as short as sixteen pages. Distrust of other religions, the treatment of widows, and both migration and immigration took place following the partition, and Rao allows her readers a window into each occurrence.

An Unrestored Woman takes its name from the millions of women "recovered" to India from Pakistan following the partition. Yet, Rao chooses to call these women "restored" in order to give them more dignity. Receiving the Katherine Anne Porter Prize, Shobha Rao is an up and coming writer, and I would look forward to reading her future novels.

[Taryn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Usually I'm all in favor of not reading too much about books before starting them. In this case, though, I wish I'd noted ahead of time that these are paired short stories. Each story overlaps just enough with its partner to cast a skewed light, ever so slightly warping and twisting what you thought you knew about the characters or their situation.

Sadly, I was slow to catch on to this pattern. Having never encountered a paired short story collection, I assumed all the stories in the book were linked, and thus wasted a fair amount of energy looking for repeating characters throughout the book. I should have recognized Rao had adopted a straightforward, rigid structure for the collection, because the stories themselves are so well-organized and perfectly contained. That's probably not a sexy way to describe a short story, but it appeals immensely to my concrete-sequential brain. Rao also wisely limits herself thematically by focusing the entire collection on one historical event: Partition—when, in 1947, India and Pakistan were divided by a line on a map into two distinct countries.

I couldn't help but compare Rao's collection with another I read recently, What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours by Helen Oyeyemi. If Oyeyemi's stories are like overgrown gardens that require a reader to bushwhack her way out (beautiful but oh-so-thorny!), Rao's stories are like perfectly smooth glass paperweights, plenty hefty but complete in themselves. I loved both collections, but upon reflection, they really could not be more different.

This is already one of my favorite books of the year: hard but redemptive in theme, spare and precise in style. Rao has a mysterious way of making her characters immediately knowable—a few lines in and you're right with her, waiting with wide eyes to see what will happen to them. And I know people say this all the time, but I can't believe this is a debut.

With regards to Flatiron Books and Goodreads for the review copy, which I was lucky enough to win in a recent giveaway. On sale now!

More book recommendations by me at www.readingwithhippos.com

[Kitty G Books · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a collection of short stories which focus on women from India and Pakistan. I knew next to nothing about these two countries before reading this (I didn't even realise they used to be the same country!) and since reading it I am now fascinated with the culture and particularly the way of life for females within the countries.

This short story collection does something I've never seen before which is to join some of the stories together. Each pair of stories has a link, be it theme, characters or setting and it's fairly clear. I loved this becuase it showed different sides of similar stories, and it also meant that the author got to show off her styles too.

The stories which I think most hit me were the ones involving young women feeling trapped in their marriages or who have been abducted and taken to work in the sex trade, be married to a man or to earn their way on their own. There is rape and abduction in a fair few of these stories and nearly all of them were quite heavy with emotion. I think this isn't a collection to be taken lightly, but saying that the wiring is nice and some of the phrasings are quite beautiful and poignant.

We do get a lot of same sex couples and different types of people and relationships showcased within this collection which is certainly something I didn't anticipate and I was pleased to encounter. I would definitely say it's well worth a read!

Overall I just loved this collection and I would hugely recommend it. It's not a long collection and won't take a long time to read, but it's beautiful and lovely and heart-wrneching and it made me want to learn more myself which is always great! 4.5*s from me. #DiverseAThon

[Jean · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was very difficult for me to read. With that said, I would recommend it to every one of my Goodread's friends. You feel Rao's heart and the heart and mind of each person depicted in this book that deals with the lives of people involved in the partition of Pakistan and India in 1947.

[Jennifer (Insert Lit Pun) · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is more around 4-star quality, but I think the rating has to do with my changing relationship with short stories collections. I just don't find them very satisfying to read anymore, even when they check all the boxes this one does (thematically focused, characters appearing in more than one story, beautiful writing). Most of these 12 stories are related to the 1947 Partition of India and Pakistan, so naturally, many involve violence against women (although the stories are about evenly split between male and female perspectives, and they don't all deal with heteronormative love). I think Rao handled her subject matter gracefully, and has a real talent for the short story form. I just found this collection so unbelievably depressing, and there was zero humor to help you through it all. Still, this is one of the more memorable short story collections I've read, and I recommend it.

[Shannon · Rating 4 out of 5]

As I said on Instagram, it was slow going with these stories for two reasons: they are emotionally taxing and they don’t grab you right away. They took me way longer to read than it should have, but I'm glad I didn't quit. I can't help but compare this collection to Difficult Women by Roxane Gay because the range here is so much greater. The challenges these women face are authentic and the ways they handle them are varied. Unlike the women in Difficult Women, who need therapy and handle their issues (self-imposed in my opinion) mostly the same way, the women in An Unrestored Woman need a lifeline. I never failed to be impressed with the way a few of the characters made a cameo in one story, which brought understanding to how their lives came to be in the story where they are the central figure. Like everyone here, I read a lot of books. It's rare that when I finish a book I sit and fan through the pages. I didn't want to put it down; it's almost as if I needed more time to absorb what I'd read. With this being a debut collection, there is no doubt I will read whatever Shobha Rao writes next.

[Saleh MoonWalker · Rating 4 out of 5]

Onvan : An Unrestored Woman - Nevisande : Shobha Rao - ISBN : 1250073820 - ISBN13 : 9781250073822 - Dar 256 Safhe - Saal e Chap : 2016

[Ming · Rating 5 out of 5]

I could tell within the first few sentences that this would be a beautiful read. It is a gorgeous book. A collection of stories portrays the diverse experience of Partition in 1947. Each story is unique and accessible, and heartfelt and tragic. Several stories are paired to create a dynamic tension, revealing how the earlier story led to or unraveled into a latter one. This book gives voice to and honors an awful piece of our world history, a scar of colonialism that endures and a shame the British cannot deny. Rao gave me a glimpse of the individual and realistic tragedies and, in doing so, brought into a clearer frame how millions suffered some 70 years ago. I believe that we are still suffering from this and that much of the current social unrest in the South Asian region can be traced directly to Partition and imperialism.

I didn't want the book to end. I'm definitely waiting for her next book.

I refer to "feminist rehearsal" here as a concept that helps me grapple with the past, our history. As a reader, I seek art that helps me address, redress, understand, frame and re-frame where we are today. The stories in this book are not only imaginings of historical events, they also represent lived experiences at some level and in doing so help us reckon with the present.

[TraceyL · Rating 5 out of 5]

A heartbreaking collection of short stories from the author of Girls Burn Brighter. I loved this collection. These stories are in pairs, usually with a side character in the first one appearing in the second. It made the collection feel more cohesive than others I've read.

This book is not for the faint of heart. It's blunt in its depiction of rape and abuse. If you can handle it, I highly recommend this book.

[Repellent Boy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Primera vez que leo alguna de una autora de este zona de Asia. Y me ha gustado mucho la experiencia. A priori nos encontramos que este libro está compuesto por diferentes relatos, algunos entrelazados, con el telón de fondo de la época de la partición de el bloque que formaban India y Pakistán. No sabía absolutamente nada de esta época y me ha resultado altamente interesante.

Los relatos nos mostraran las vivencias de diferentes personajes, desde la época anterior a la partición, como si vivieron los días previos, cómo fueron los días en los que se produjo, y sobre todo, los días de después, el resultado de esta desunión. Musulmanes e hindúes fueron condenados a no mezclarse, los primeros residiendo en Pakistán y los segundos en India. Lo que propicio, la separación de muchas familias y el desplazamiento de muchas personas. Dentro de este contexto se vivieron muchas atentados y raptos. Estos raptos, en gran medida, se realizaban a mujeres, que solían ser violadas y separadas de su mundo. Eran consideradas mancilladas de por vida, de manera que, aunque lograran regresar a casa, este tampoco era ya su hogar.

Ha sido un libro brutal. Me ha puesto la carne de gallina en muchos momentos. Si bien es cierto, que no le pongo la máxima nota porque en el transcurso di con algunos relatos inferiores en impacto a otros y sin el mismo interés. Para quien disfrutara libros como Volver a casa de Yaa Gyasi o Nacer mujer en China de Xue Xinran. Este le encantará también, como ha sido mi caso.

[Emily · Rating 5 out of 5]

ANOTHER five star read! I've been getting lucky with my reading picks in 2018 (so far, at least...).

This is a short story collection centered around the Partition of India and Pakistan in 1947, and the subsequent refugee crisis that ensued. Rao focuses primarily on women affected by this crisis. Even stories that do not have female POVs are still centered around them--on the expectations and burdens that the male characters place upon them. The stories are also all paired, which was a touch I really enjoyed. A secondary, or even minor, character from one story will feature prominently in the second story of the pair.

Both the subject and the structure lend themselves to a very cohesive short story collection. The stories flow together in a way that is often lacking in other collections. And because Rao stories are set in different locations and times, and focus on different groups affected by the Partition (Muslim, Sikh, and Hindu), the stories never feel repetitive, either.

Rao's writing is GORGEOUS. I don't have much more to say about it. It's gorgeous, and I absolutely loved reading it.

[Shawn Mooney (Shawn Breathes Books) · Rating 4 out of 5]

An impressive, confident debut collection of stories that in the main explore how the 1947 partition of India was wrought upon the bodies of women on both sides of that divide. I question whether a novel with a smaller number of fully-developed characters might have avoided the ‘tragedy porn’ feeling that crept up for me a few times, but no matter: the strongest of these stories has made me eagerly look forward to Rao’s imminent debut novel!

[Katie Lumsden · Rating 5 out of 5]

An incredibly powerful short story collection and a real new favourite. Rao's writing is raw, beautiful and unfailingly good, her characterisation excellent, and her engagement with history and with very serious themes so expertly handled. I found the collection as a whole intensely moving and would highly recommended it.

[Naomi · Rating 5 out of 5]

This review originally appeared on BookBrowse: https://www.bookbrowse.com/reviews/in...
At the stroke of midnight on August 15 1947, the British pulled out of India after eighty-nine years of Colonial rule. In their haste to leave, they agreed to demands by the All India Muslim League (a political party led by Muhammad Ali Jinnah) and partitioned the territory into two countries—India and Pakistan—along an ill conceived and carelessly drawn boundary known as the Radcliffe Line. Partition resulted in the displacement of approximately 15 million people and roughly one million deaths, as masses of humanity fled the resultant explosion of violence between Hindus, Sikhs, and Muslims. The twelve stories in Shobha Rao’s debut collection, An Unrestored Woman, circle outward from the event of Partition like ripples from a stone thrown into a lake. In breathtaking, expansive prose, she reveals the devastating effects of Partition that still reverberate today, crossing the ocean to Europe and the New World with the immigrants who seek a better life there. The stories focus largely on the violence done to women and children, whom Rao calls, “the most vulnerable” of victims, but beyond that, they illuminate the terrible choices one is forced to make when the known world spirals out of control, and the resultant trauma that passes down to future generations like mutations in the cultural DNA.

Rather than a linked collection, the collection consists of six linked pairs. Neela, married at thirteen to a brutal and uncaring man, is taken to a camp “FOR REFUGEES AND UNRESTORED WOMEN” after his reported death; in the linked story, her closest friend in the camp becomes the mistress of a rich merchant and his wife. In other paired stories, an Imperial policeman who is forced to leave the continent after rumors of his homosexuality follow him reappears as a doorman in New York City who brings solace to a young betrayed woman; a young girl held hostage in a brothel plots a brutal revenge against the madam who keeps her, and then the madam reappears as a wizened midwife who delivers a baby to a Hindu woman forced to make a terrible choice about the child; a Muslim boy who escapes a train raided by a murderous mob reemerges as a grandfather who has moved to London to be with his family and whose granddaughter struggles to save her marriage after the death of their child; a young cartographer alters a small section of the Radcliffe Line with terrible consequences, and then his boss reappears as a senile old man who sets off in search of a prostitute he often hires.

The title of the collection comes from the 1949 “Abducted Persons (Recovery and Restoration) Act,” an attempt by the Indian Government to return women who were kidnapped and raped during Partition to families that, in many cases, no longer wanted them. Rao’s use of the term restored rather than recovered is deliberate. “The distinction may seem trivial,” she states in her author’s note, “but it is necessary, for I believe that while the recovery of a person is possible, the restoration of a human being to her original state is not.” Yet these are not stories of despair. Rather, they speak of the tenacity and strength in which the faintest glimmer of hope is enough to keep both the reader and the characters moving forward. “It’s funny the things we suffer and the things we remember about suffering,” says the main character in “The Lost Ribbon,” recalling how she endured being held hostage and repeatedly raped. “That’s how memory works, skips like a happy pebble, even if the memory is so very far from happy.”

Geographically, the stories span the Raj, modern day Pakistan and India, Europe, and the United States. They are at once courageous, raw, heartbreaking, and beautiful. With shimmering prose, Rao establishes a sense of place, pulling the reader deep inside the character’s world. Her use of metaphor is fresh and surprising, whether she is describing the Shivalik Hills that would, “stand like they always stood against the morning sky, whipped and creamy like clotted ghee,” the desert beside the road to Mirpur Khas that, “seemed to unfold endlessly, and devouringly, like a bolt of cloth unfurling in all directions that the slightest wind raised and flapped like the sides of a tent,” or New York City where, “the yellow-lit restaurant, our tiny table at its center, the over-stuffed warmth of our wool sweaters, and even the bitterness of our coffees formed a supreme and cardinal quiet, like the very center of a storm.”

Rao’s characters are determined. They are memorable and vividly drawn, fearless and haunting. “Zubaida calmly picked up the snake behind its head . . . and held it. Its body coiled, its mouth hinged and menacing, its head angled upward. Bandra thought she would fling it away, but instead the girl turned the snake around to face her and opened her own mouth wide.” Indeed, Rao confronts both characters and story with the same bravery that Zubaida confronts the snake.

What drives these characters is hunger, whether physical or metaphoric. Some come from lives of abject poverty; some have fled the maelstrom of Partition with only what they could carry; some witness the violent deaths of those they hold most dear. All hunger for something beyond their reach. The title story begins:

Neela, on the night she learned of her husband’s death, sat under the banyan tree outside their hut and felt an intense hunger. It was on the night of the train accident. No, not an accident, she corrected herself. Not at all. She felt this same hunger on her wedding day. . . Fruits, coconuts, laddoos, twisted piles of orange jilebi. She’d never seen so much food; her mouth watered.

But Neela’s hunger is for more than food; she yearns for loving touch. “The plump yellow skins of the bananas called to her. Their smooth skins were the edge of a sunrise. They were the voice of her mother. She’d died giving birth to Neela but Neela had imagined her voice many, many times, flawless and brave and cool like the banana skin.” Whether they hunger for love, wealth, purpose, acceptance, or lost lives, Rao handles her characters with tenderness and clarity, bringing their desires to life on the page.

When I asked Shobha Rao why she chose to tackle the subject of partition, she responded:

Partition is deeply ingrained in the minds of Indians and Pakistanis. The event has defined much of the distrust between the two countries, and the trauma of it was so great that it passes down through time (very much like the Holocaust). I was drawn to Partition as a way to explore themes that have always haunted me: displacement, alienation, the loneliness of new lands. The terror and beauty of flight.

Rao confronts these issues head-on. With confidence and courage, she writes the thin line between shying away from violence and indulging in it. She writes the terrible beauty of life and of death. An Unrestored Woman is an auspicious debut. It is one of the most resonant works I have read in a long time. I could not bear to let these characters go, and the last lines left me hungering for more.

[Robert · Rating 4 out of 5]

In the past I have stated my views on short stories but while I find that format a bit of a struggle, I adore interconnected short stories. I also am keen on Indian literature so there was no way I would dislike An Unrestored Woman.

The basis of most of the stories is the creation of Pakistan, where Muslims and Hindus separated. Otherwise known as partition. Sometimes there are some time jumps but the majority of the stories take place in 1947.

It’s an eclectic mix: a sex worker seeks revenge on the Madame who runs the place, a cartographer thinks up a ruse in order to seduce the girl of his dreams, a servant pays pack his upper class masters in a dramatic way. One thing I liked was that side characters would receive their own story, usually one which would explain a personality trait.

As for themes, gender and sexuality play a huge role, so does immigration, colonialism, religion, tradition and social class. Think of the book as a patchwork quilt. There’s a wide variety, but they are all linked.

An Unrestored Woman is an excellent selection of stories, the majority are dour but they are cleverly structured and the endings have a good punchline. Plus it’s topical as well. It also looks like I’ve got a new favourite author as I’m going to try find Shobha Rao’s debut novel, Girls Burn Brighter.

[luce (cry bebè's back from hiatus) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some of the stories were a bit boring and I found most of the character's rather distant. Still Rao's writing is worth a read.

[Rachel · Rating 5 out of 5]

OK, let's see if I can justify this star rating. :P This is a very complicated set of short stories.

Using the 1947 partition of India and Pakistan as her jumping off point, Rao fashions 12 interconnected short stories, each of which directly or indirectly features the plight of women. The stories aren't fully interconnected, but each coupling is, with characters and themes running through them.

Most of the stories take place around the partition, with a few taking place before and after, but I'm not sure that they're so specifically about that conflict. Each of them, directly or indirectly, features an oppressed woman. The conflict can often exacerbate that oppression, but the focus is often on the propensity of violence.

It took me a little while to remember that I'd actually read one of Rao's stories before--"Kavitha and Mustafa" appeared in one of the BEST AMERICAN SHORT STORIES renditions. In this collection as well as that one, I found it to be one of the more plot-driven stories. It takes place on a single day, when a train headed from one country to the other is boarded and robbed. The titular characters escape, and in its coupled story, Mustafa is the grandfather of the modern-day protagonist, Safia. Both Kavitha and Safia are feeling a sense of displacement--both physical and mental--and they're both underwhelmed by their marriages.

They're lucky, when it comes to Rao characters. Many others are subject to physical and sexual violence. My favorite pair are rife with trigger warnings on that subject. The first is "Blindfold," which takes place in the late 1800s, when a brothel mistress abducts a young girl, who then spends a few years plotting her revenge. Then, in "The Lost Ribbon," the now-elderly former brothel owner appears as a minor character in this kidnapping situation; a Muslim man has abducted a Hindu woman and keeps her locked up in a hut. Interestingly enough, the characters of Zubaida in the first and the unnamed narrator in the second strike me more as "unrestored women," in that they were both abducted, and have been made "impure" by their experiences. But Rao gives this title to her first story, where a supposed widow thought she found new peace and community, only to have her husband's surprise return take that away from her.

These two personal favorite stories are undoubtedly sensational, but there's more to them, too. I love the point of view in both. In "Blindfold" it's appalling, seeing through the eyes of this brothel mistress who justifies selling girls into prostitution. At the same time, Rao unfolds the tale like a horror story, as the brothel mistress questions her perception of events as her victim, Zubaida, plots a long road to revenge. The ending, with the blindfolded monkey, is perhaps slightly on the nose, but that's a very minor quibble. Then, in "The Lost Ribbon," the story flits between the present and the past, and is perhaps some of the best justification for using first person. It took me until writing this review to realize the significance of not giving the narrator a name. She is victimized twice over by the India/Pakistan conflict, and the present-day inserts give full scope to her loss. The lost ribbon from her childhood is a subtle metaphor that attests to this, too, and gives the character a well-roundedness.

I think I might want to talk about all of the stories! Renu, in "The Merchant's Mistress," also lost her husband to political mob violence, and she finds her love for life again, well, by immoral means. Though she's also stuck between a rock and a hard place as a destitute servant. "The Imperial Police" takes us to the tail end of British colonialism, where factional violence is starting to run rampant. Although most of the characters are men, we get a shocking reveal about one of them near the end, when his widow attests to his violent nature (hinted at deftly in the story by his inability to fully extend one arm.) It's paired story, "Unleashed," takes us to '70s/'80s America, where the protagonist of the last one now works as a doorman, but really this story is about how sexual violence and long term bullying about said violence changes the internal makeup of two Indian sisters. "The Opposite of Sex," which uses the mapping of borders during the Partition to set the scene, touches upon the stupidity of marital game manipulations. It's partner, "Such a Mighty River," moves into India in the 1970s, where a supporting character from the last story also gets into trouble because he's not seeing his relationships with women clearly. "The Road to Mirpur Khas" and "The Memshahib" both include a sociopath at very different points in his life, but who in both hurts women for the sake of his pride. The first takes place while some destitute Muslims are trying to make their way across a barren dessert to a new home, and the second takes place, decades earlier, when he's a servant to a posh English family. I really appreciate how Rao could both point out the cruelties and absurdities of colonialism (one of the Brits was named Dicky, which I think now has to be a requirement of all English colonialist-themed literature :P) while at the same time painting this Indian man as her villain.

The worldbuilding, the characters and the storytelling techniques are for the most part very strong. And the full collection gives a fascinating, if "unrelenting," as Kirkus calls it, look at the violence in human nature. On BookTube I've heard this collection compared to HUMAN ACTS by Han Kang in how it deals with the long tail of said violence, and I'd agree with that. HUMAN ACTS was more focused on one event and it only went forward in time, whereas Rao handles things in a more multi-faceted way. But both, I believe, speak to the same sorts of truths.

[Laura Hoffman Brauman · Rating 4 out of 5]

In 1947, the Partition took place and India and Pakistan became 2 different countries, the boundary, a line drawn on a map. Muslims were expected to move to Pakistan and Hindus and Sikhs were expected to move to India - -regardless of where they lived before. It's estimated that 8-10 million people were required to move, the largest peacetime migration in history. But occurring in peacetime is much different than peaceful -- almost one million people were killed in the process and approx. 80,000 women were kidnapped. My very western based history schooling taught me nothing about this -- and if it was mentioned, I didn't know enough to consider what this might have meant for the millions impacted. An Unrestored Woman is a collection of linked short stories about people whose lives were impacted by the Partition and the violence that accompanied it. The writing is beautiful, the stories are both heartbreaking and sometimes hopeful -- this is an incredible read.

[Lia · Rating 4 out of 5]

As with all short story collections the average rating can be misleading.
Some stories were brilliant. The Merchant’s Mistress and Blindfold.
Others were good.

The connecting narratives were so richly woven into the history of Pakistan and India partition that there was so much darkness and weight to the stories. Overall I wanted more light. I felt the almost relentless sadness left a heavy feeling to the overall collection.

Saying that though.
When the stories were good. They were really really good.

Satisfying. But I don’t know who if anyone I would recommend this to.

[Tova · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5/5 Mini RTC, but my favourite stories were The Lost Ribbon, Kavitha & Mustafa & Curfew. Why am I so much more productive about reading while in Canada?

[Courtney Ferriter · Rating 4 out of 5]

**4 stars**

This short story collection explores problems between Hindus and Muslims, India and Pakistan, and men and women around the time of Partition in India. Shobha Rao includes a brief author's note at the beginning to provide some historical context about the Partition of India and Pakistan, which occurred in 1947 and led to the mass movement of millions of people, violence, and unrest.

These stories are quick reading but consist mainly of very serious and heavy subject matter, so they are by no means light and easy reading. In fact, after the stories "Blindfold" and "The Lost Ribbon" in the middle of the collection, I had to put the book down for a few days before coming back to it because those were both pretty horrific. It's also useful to know that the stories are somewhat paired together. Stories 1 & 2, 3 & 4, 5 & 6, etc. share a recurring character and are connected to one another.

The stories are told from varying perspectives, which is commendable, but I wasn't sold on Rao's depictions of men when the stories followed a male perspective. Otherwise, this was a good and well-crafted (if challenging and difficult to stomach) collection that gave me some valuable insight into the historical time period of Partition in India and Pakistan, which I knew nothing about prior to reading these short stories.

[Eric Anderson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Any dramatic or violent shift in society will mean that the lives of ordinary people are drastically affected. When country borders are redrawn people must also redraw their sense of identity. Some will survive this shift and some won’t. Shobha Rao writes about a large group of loosely connected individuals whose lives have been changed or residually affected by the Indian subcontinent being partitioned into the countries of India and Pakistan in 1947. These are short stories which can definitely be read independently, but this book exists in that murky realm between the novel and a collection of short stories. Part of the book’s power comes from seeing how certain characters appear differently in stories which don’t focus on them. But each story brings to the forefront the concrete life-altering changes caused by Partition in a fascinating variety of forms.

Read my full review of An Unrestored Woman by Shobha Rao on LonesomeReader

[Liv · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 Stars


An Unrestored Woman was an interesting read. It was a series of short stories that focused on the Partition of India and Pakistan in 1947 and the long-reaching consequences this had. For those that know little about the Partition of India and Pakistan this was a contentious period in history and displaced between 10-12 million people based on their religion. The line was drawn by a British lawyer Sir Cyril Radcliffe who made one trip to India and it was very unclear beyond religious lines how the nations were divided. This event resulted in the pillaging, massacring, burning of villages and communities on either side, and the rape and abduction of thousands of women. These women were commonly referred to as recovered women, however Rao chooses to change the terminology used in this book.

"Though the commonly used term for these women is recovered women, I have chosen to refer to them as restored. The distinction may seem trivial, but it is necessary, for I believe that while the recovery of a person is possible, the restoration of a human being to her original state is not." 

It was an incredibly traumatic and chaotic period of history and is still the cause of much conflict and tension along the disputed borders. Many of these women who were abducted were never returned to their communities and those that did were often seen as shamed and dirty, many of them chose to commit suicide or were forced to commit suicide by their families.

Shobha Rao's stories focused less on the rape and the pillaging, however she did touch on the consequences of these actions in more subtle ways. The majority of her stories seemed to actually be focused geographically on Pakistan rather than India. She covered a range of important themes: conflict between Muslim and Hindu communities, rape, pillaging, race, gender, colonialism, child marriage, prostitution, sexuality and more. I found some of her stories were distinctly better than others as some of them were very confusing with the introductions to some stories being a little discombobulated and unclear.

I would not say these stories were happy stories as the majority of the short stories touched on painful topics about family, grief, death, separation, and changes in lifestyle. However, they were interesting. Also many of her stories had ambiguous endings so it wasn't clear whether the characters survived, continued with their lives, what direction they went in which was a clever narrative for this type of story as you continue to wonder what happened to them.

I think my favourite short story was the The Merchant's Mistress where we have Renu, who was first featured in the first short story An Unrestored Woman. Renu was an interesting character; she was initially widowed when her husband was captured and burned and she ended up at a women's camp. From there she eventually left to travel onwards on her own. She was particularly interesting because there was considerable crossover in her gender identity when she dressed as a man and a woman. She moved fluidly between sleeping with the Merchant's wife and the Merchant and she had questionable moral standards. I found her story one of the most interesting and easy to follow.

The second story that was also really powerful was Unleashed as this focused on a couple who no longer lived in India. The woman and her sister had come over in childhood and grown up in America. The changes in standards and their behaviour were interesting as there were parallels between Anju and her sister. One of my favourite quotes was from this short story.

"Was defiance temporary, like a gust of wind that lifted you once, then set you down? Or was it always there, inside of you, like a small dinghy tied to the harbor of your heart, waiting, at the ready, to launch?"

Overall, I felt like there were a lot of strong aspects to this short story collection and I'd like to read more by Shobha Rao as I realise she has a full-length novel out Girls Burn Brighter which I will probably try to pick up from the library. I hope that the novel would cover the stronger elements of her short stories. I would recommend these short stories to those interested in Pakistan/India history and more historical fiction.

[Moreninha · Rating 4 out of 5]

Estoy en shock tras terminar la lectura de esta colección de relatos levemente enlazados y agrupados en torno a la temática de la Partición entre la India y Pakistan. La autora incide menos de lo que yo esperaba en el trasfondo político del asunto, del que apenas se cuenta nada, probablemente debido a esa condición de relatos casi independientes entre sí y no de novela. A mí me hubiese gustado haber leído un poco también de esto, pero está claro que no era la intención de Shobha Rao adentrarse en el género de la ficción histórica, sino que aprovecha ese suceso y sus consecuencias (los movimientos migratorios de una nación a otra e incluso a terceras naciones) para desgranar las dramáticas vidas de sus personajes.
Lo he pasado mal leyendo "Una mujer desposeída". Nos encontramos en un territorio, en un espacio físico y temporal en el que la vida no vale nada y la vida de las mujeres, menos aún. Mujeres violadas, prostituidas a la fuerza, despreciadas, vendidas por sus padres en la infancia, explotadas, humilladas, coaccionadas a suicidarse. En ocasiones, esta explotación viene también de otras mujeres. Es muy desgarrador el relato de cómo la violación está instaurada estructuralmente en muchas relaciones de pareja, no en un momento, sino como tónica habitual y sin que en ningún momento se haya intentado ninguna otra cosa.
La autora usa un lenguaje hermoso, cimentado en los sentidos, para mostrarnos todo esto. Sus personajes se comunican con el tacto, el olfato, el gusto. Resulta estremecedor a veces el contraste entre la belleza de la descripción y lo horrible de lo que describe.
En un entorno tan mísero, cualquier objeto, por insignificante que sea, cobra un valor simbólico particular, un guijarro, unas sandalias...
En fin, una lectura con muchas capas que resulta un poco ardua en cuanto a nuestra propia sensibilidad.

[K · Rating 5 out of 5]

An Unrestored Woman - #bookrecommendation
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"My wife comes into the room, shutting out the sun as she closes the door, and lays the wad of bills on the table in front of me. I can't look at her. I want to feel shame but I only feel a thin pleasure, like a fine layer of skin, puckered and white and soulless, floating on cooling milk." - Shobha Rao.
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Set during the time of partition, this book of twelve short stories strikes a chord that seems deeply personal. As the title suggests, the protagonists are mostly women. Women of all kinds and ages. Apart from being a very intense read, it stirs up feelings that we often tend to forget about. There's helplessness, strength, courage, despair and many other emotions that did take a toll on me. The stories are not too difficult to comprehend but there's an underlying sense of pain that follows every word. It is often said and known that it was women who were much more adversely affected during the partition for they were abducted, raped and even killed. This book gives us a glimpse of what they might have gone through.
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There were few chapters that made me cringe like women being trapped in loveless marriages. Two women who meet at a refugee camp bond over few days and build a relationship which is beyond love. They are separated and the aftereffects of it kills one as the other woman goes on to become a rich woman. The Merchant's Mistress and An Unrestored Woman, the first two chapters set the pace for rest of the book. The most beautiful thing about the book is how they're interlinked, be it the characters or the stories. It's narrated stunningly and is extremely vivid. Women who sell their bodies to support their husbands, women who are raped for days and how Muslims and Hindus slaughtered each other like animals. It's a thought-provoking read.
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I would definitely recommend this to those who enjoy a powerful book. Something that'd make your blood run cold as you take in the lives of people who were born during that period.
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Rating - 5/5.

[Malene · Rating 4 out of 5]

Heartbreaking stories, beautifully linked.

[ellie · Rating 4 out of 5]

in one word: profound

[Mehvish · Rating 3 out of 5]

After reading the blurb of the book, I thought it was a novel set during time of the indo-pak partition and how it affected the protagonists life, but it wasn't . This book is a collection of short stories which are set during the india-pak partition. Couple of the stories are some what connected because of the characters otherwise none of the stories are connected. These stories are descriptive, in terms of letting readers imagine where the story is taking place. The central theme of these short stories are: being uprooted from the places they called home and how nothing can go back as it used to be. Different characters are shown during various time periods during and after the indo-pak partition.
I liked the history I learnt through the stories other than that I didn't like the book as much. Pain and struggle could be felt through the characters and their situations but sometimes I couldn't find the essence of the story. There were a couple short stories enjoyed and found the theme of being uprooted explained and shown. These were some of the stories I enjoyed:
- an unrestored woman
- Blindfold
- The lost ribbon
- Road to mirpur khas
- Kavitha and mustafa
- Curfew
At times I felt lost while reading , at times I wanted to get done with this book as it boring me. All in all, it was an alright book. The blurb of the book is misleading at first but after the last story I read the blurb again and it made sense then.

[Margaret Madden · Rating 5 out of 5]

A delicate thread connects these powerful short stories. The author adds a forward note to describe events that originated in 1947, when “the decline of the British Empire on the Indian subcontinent led to the formation of two new sovereign states: India and Pakistan.” The physical and religious boundaries resulted in mass movement between the two nations, where displacement, brutality and murder became the horrendous reality. Through each of the stories, which span decades and continents, the horrors of partition are vividly examined through the eyes of the displaced: the former servants of the British colonists; the women who are forced to become sex workers to stay alive; the mother who believes her child would be better dead than living in fear; the shamed English man who lusts after his male subordinate. Raw, intense and mind-blowing; each sentence is soaked with the blood, sweat and tears of its characters. This collection is one of the most sublime and under-rated examples of literary fiction I have ever encountered. If you buy only one book this year, make it this one.

[Lyndsay · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a collection of short stories all about Partition in India and Pakistan in the 1940s. The collection focuses mainly on women and the stories of their struggles during this time. The stories are paired, so each set of 2 stories are connected somehow either by content or characters.

An Unrestored Woman (5 stars): Starting off with this story, I think, is really going to set the tone for the rest of the collection. There’s a hopelessness to this story that immediately breaks your heart. I wanted to reach through the pages and give the main character a hug. It’s all about a woman stuck in a marriage that she didn’t want and then what happens when she suddenly and unexpectedly becomes a widow. I truly felt her despair in her circumstances and the story broke my heart. If the rest of the stories are this sad, I’m not sure I’m prepared for the collection as a whole.

The Merchant’s Mistress (5 stars): Another kind of heartbreaking story that also feels a little hopeful. This one follows a woman (a minor character in the first story) who decides to take her fate into her own hands and it’s all about what happens when she falls in love unexpectedly. This story felt empowering and hopeful but also a little bleak. I really liked it though and I liked how the first two stories paired together.

The Imperial Police (4 stars): This story follows a policeman who has been forced to hide his true self for all of his life for fear of shame and persecution. When another officer in his station is killed, the policeman is tasked with speaking to the officer’s wife. Through this interaction, he realizes that you don’t always know the truth of someone based solely on small interactions with them. I liked this story but not as much as the first two. It definitely has the same feel of hopelessness that the first two stories had, but in a bit of a different way. The writing is still beautiful though and I can’t wait to read the paired story.

Unleashed (5 stars): Another incredibly powerful story about who you truly are, trying to figure out what past events shaped the person you’ve become. Major trigger warning for sexual assault in this story. But there was something so heartbreaking about the main character’s story that I felt so much sympathy and empathy for her. This collection is turning into a real winner. Fingers crossed that stays true.

Blindfold (4 stars): It’s hard to feel sympathy for a woman who is so obviously the villain of the story. But that’s what the author sets out to do in this story. However, this story also really showcases the resilience of people, especially women. I liked this one a lot even though the narrator is not a nice lady. Trigger warning for sexual assault in this story as well.

The Lost Ribbon (5 stars): The most heartbreaking short story I think I’ve ever read. For a mother to do whatever is necessary to keep her child safe, knowing it means she must do the unthinkable? I cannot even imagine. If this was common during that time, I’m so heartbroken for all of the mothers out there who endured this.

The Opposite of Sex (4 stars): Men think they deserve everything but actually deserve nothing and are a source of trouble for a lot of people. That’s the takeaway from this story, really. This is turning into one of the strongest short story collections I’ve ever read and I’m not complaining at all. I wish I’d read it sooner.

Such a Mighty River (3.5 stars): This was a very sad story about a man who is suffering some form of dementia and is just trying to find his way home. Simultaneously, we flash back several decades to just after he and his wife were married when he went looking for her one night after working late. The two timelines jump back and forth and, at times, almost mirror each other. It was really sad to see that the man just didn’t understand who and where he was. But it was probably my least favorite story in the collection so far.

The Road to Mirpur Khas (4 stars): People are so resilient. But they are still people. And even though many will go to great lengths to survive, it does not mean that those experiences don’t leave scars. This story was tragic and it made me want to cry.

The Memsahib (4 stars): Another story about resilience and survival. This one is told from the POV of a male servant in a wealthy white family. This one also illustrates the cruelty that humans can have against each other and that race, class, and gender don’t always necessarily have that much to do with it. I liked it, as I’ve liked all the stories in the collection.

Kavita and Mustafa (4 stars): I enjoyed this story as well! A husband and wife trapped in an impossible situation trying to find a way to survive. I can only imagine the horrors that people going through these situations lived through each day and it’s incredibly heartbreaking.

Curfew (5 stars): Another story that just completely broke my heart. The author did a really good job in this story (and throughout the entire collection) of making the characters feel like real people going through real emotions. This definitely ended up being one of my favorite stories in the collection. And the last two stories were probably my favorite pair of stories in the whole book.

Overall, I really enjoyed this short story collection. It’s probably my favorite collection I’ve ever read because each story felt complete. Sometimes, I don’t love short stories because they don’t always feel fleshed out and sometimes they don’t always give me enough. But this collection really gave me enough. Each story, each character, each moment felt completely fleshed out. And while yes, there are a few stories in this collection that I would love to read as full-length novels, I was completely satisfied with what we got. I cannot wait to read more from this author in the future because she is clearly so incredibly talented. Her debut full-length novel is on my TBR and I just know that it will deliver.