Review: Honor by Thrity Umrigar

Smita, an Indian-American journalist, whose family had moved from Mumbai with no intention of ever returning, reluctantly goes back to India to cover a story. 336pp, ₹1802; Algonquin Books The narrative voice is firmly female and moves from Smita to Meena who recounts the tender moments she shared with Abdul, the victim of a brutal “honour killing”. Umrigar deftly ties together disparate elements and sub plots spread across time zones and the divide between rural and urban India as she also exposes the fault lines within a seemingly progressive city. She is “filled with an intense desire to study Mohan, like learning a foreign language that would open up new vistas.” Mohan taking her hand in his makes her cry harder because of “everything that gesture telegraphed -- sympathy, solidarity, caring.” Author Thrity Umrigar Inspired by Ellen Barry’s news articles about India in the New York Times, Honor is a poignant and tender tale of love, hope, betrayal, faith, sacrifice and notions of honour in a society. It also explores inter faith love and the power of restrictive invisible boundaries created and enforced by society, and the ideas of family honour, masculine pride and the clash of cultures.