A review by jandi
Bone and Bread by Saleema Nawaz

5.0

Beautiful book. "Bone and Bread" follows the story of Beena, orphaned at an early age (first her father, years later her mother), and having to take care of her anorexic sister, Sadhana, while dealing with a teenage pregnancy. There are two storylines - one starting from her childhood, and one where she is coping with the death of her sister, from a heart attack in her 30's. The story is told in first person, and we get a deep insight into Beena's conflicting love, rage and resentment, an honest depiction of the psychological distress endured by care takers of loved ones with chronic illness. I loved seeing the growth in her character, and how she starts coming to terms with her feelings, and slowly opening the doors to a new beginning. The book does stray into a few story lines that detract from the relationship between the two sisters

Spoiler

- some Quebec political events are thrown in for no good measure, and Sadhana's death is treated like a murder mystery for a bit, even though it was a heart attack

. This is a character centric story, Beena and Sadhana are fully brought to life, as perceived by Beena her self. The plot itself leaves a few loose ends, in terms of events, but in terms of character development, I thought the ending was just where it needed to be.

Looking at other reviews, it seems that this book was part of "Canada Reads" a few years ago, under the theme "Starting over". I do think that it fits the theme really well in its conclusion.