Book review: Secret Daughter

Secret Daughter is a debut novel by Shilpi Somaya Gowda. The year is 1984. In San Francisco, Somer {pronounced Summer}, a paediatrician, has been married to Krishnan, a neurosurgeon originally from India, for a few years. They have been trying hard to have a baby but after Somer miscarries for the third time, she is told she has early menopause. Shattered that she will never become a mother, Somer grieves for what could have been. Around the same time, in a village in India, Kavita gives birth to her second child — a girl. Not wanting the same fate as her first daughter to fall on her second child, she gives up her daughter at an orphanage in Bombay without the knowledge of her husband Jasu and his family.

After a year of grieving, Krishnan manages to convince Somer to adopt. They head to India and adopt a little girl — the same girl given up by Kavita. Naming her Asha {meaning, hope}, Somer begins to build her life around her daughter. In the mean time, Kavita gives birth to a son, much to the joy of her husband and his family, but continues to grieve for her secret daughter.

As Asha grows older, she longs to know about her biological mother. In spite of Somer’s efforts, she feels she is losing Asha. Finally, at age 20, Asha wins a prize to work with the Times of India in Mumbai on a project as part of her career path towards becoming a journalist. It is here she finally meets Krishnan’s family and gets to know Mumbai — the good, bad and ugly. Finally, Asha decides to go in search of her biological parents and to find out why they gave her up. But will finding them break her and break up the family she knows?

The premise of this story was interesting and captured me straight away. Gowda has drawn out her characters really well, particularly the female characters. Somer and Kavita are almost parallel women with their respective strengths in times of adversity. Asha comes into her own in the final parts of the book. The themes of motherhood and family are addressed in this journey that spans over 25 years. Issues about the girl child and female infanticide which is rife in India are touched upon as are matters about inter-racial relationships.

The writing jarred me every now and then with the change in tense but apart from that, Gowda writes quite well. The plot works and as a reader, you want to know more about the families. For me personally, the motherhood bit frustrated me slightly — the notion that a woman who can’t give birth automatically thinks she is unworthy because all women should be mothers tends to be a soapbox issue of mine. So too a woman who loses her entire identity once she has a child. And we’re not talking about the Indian women necessarily but rather, Somer herself. But apart from those personal gripes, it was a good story.

My rating:

***This has been read and reviewed as part of Erin’s Book Challenge 4.0 which required to read a book with son, daughter, mother or father in the title, and the Outdo Yourself Reading challenge. Also linking up with Grace for FYBF and Mackenzie and Janine for Friday Reflections***

Until next time,

Cheers!!!