Play Book Tag discussion

Geeta's husband disappeared 5 years ago and the whole community believes she murdered him and accordingly treats her accordingly. As a widow, she makes wedding jewelry to earn her living and dreams of a refrigerator which will allow her to save left overs and other perishables that are hard to manage as a household of one. She is part of a microfinance loan program targeted to women with her ex-best friend and 3 others. When one of the other women misses a meeting due to her husband beating and stealing from her, she begs Geeta to teach her how to kill her own husband and the shenanigans begin as the women see pulling out their nose rings (being widowed) as the best option for their families.

This is a tough book tackling difficult topics of abusive husbands, abusive men, the prejudices of caste and religion and how easy it is to divide those who should be allies. Geeta listens to a nature program about bonobos and how the females work together to protect each other against the men and is frustrated to not see similar allyship among the women in India. The women are harsh with each other and perpetuate the differences and putting each other down but they also are always there for each other trying to sort out how to keep the women in the community safe. I enjoyed and look forward to more from Shroff.

BWF Tenacious Trailblazers: Letter S; 5 stars x 13

I enjoyed reading this despite its very serious subject matter.

I gave it 4 stars as well.

Booknblues wrote: "I enjoyed reading this despite its very serious subject matter.

I gave it 4 stars as well."

It was a good one and I appreciated that Geeta somehow managed to maintain her optimism for change.