Vera

Divakaruni writes beautifully, softly, softly and gently about devastation in families. She avoids melodrama so deftly. This is how it happens to us, the trials of our lives, without fanfare, without a soundtrack, every day as it comes, sometimes breaking us, sometimes making us stronger. This is one of those books, like Tree of Man, that I want to start over from the beginning straight away, because I can't bear to leave the characters. In blurb on the back of the copy I read, Junot Diaz says, "Chitra Divakaruni is a brilliant storyteller; she illuminates the world with her artistry; and shakes the reader with her love."He is 100% exactly correct.