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_askthebookbug 's review for:
A People's History of Heaven
by Mathangi Subramanian
// A People's History of Heaven by @mathangiwrites
A People's History of Heaven is like a beautiful song, sung by a female artist with a slightly broken voice. The song is not perfect but it doesn't matter because you just can't stop listening to it. Much like this fictional song, the characters in this book too are far from perfect but it is eventually this that makes them whole. Set in a slum in Bangalore named Swargahalli, this story is about women who are abandoned by their husbands then by the government. Women who take up four jobs to feed their children, earn money only for their husbands to waste it on liquor and other women. But these women of Swarga in fact live much better lives without the men around. Amidst a myriad of women, there are five girls who are thick as thieves. This story is about them.
Swarga, if seen from afar is nothing but dirty and poor but ask the ones who live within the invisible walls that are always threatened by bulldozers and they'll say that Swarga is exactly what the name suggests. Heaven. The girls, Deepa who is blind, Rukshana who's exploring her sexual orientation, Padma the studious one, Banu who paints graffiti for a cause and Joy who was once Anand - lean on each other just like their mothers do. Their profound friendship and loyalty to each other is part of what makes this novel phenomenal. Although their mothers are almost destitute, they protect the girls with a fierceness that only a mother can weild. This book is about women who wake up everyday and do what they have to do so that their children don't starve, it's about motherhood and also of daughters nurturing their mothers. A People's History of Heaven is of the women whose palm lines read misfortune and loss but it is also of the girls who dream of going to college and giving their mothers a better life.
I've said it before and I'll say it again, when it comes to writing about women, nobody does it better than women writers. This book was beautiful in every sense. I thank @divyashankar553 for gifting me this gorgeous novel
A People's History of Heaven is like a beautiful song, sung by a female artist with a slightly broken voice. The song is not perfect but it doesn't matter because you just can't stop listening to it. Much like this fictional song, the characters in this book too are far from perfect but it is eventually this that makes them whole. Set in a slum in Bangalore named Swargahalli, this story is about women who are abandoned by their husbands then by the government. Women who take up four jobs to feed their children, earn money only for their husbands to waste it on liquor and other women. But these women of Swarga in fact live much better lives without the men around. Amidst a myriad of women, there are five girls who are thick as thieves. This story is about them.
Swarga, if seen from afar is nothing but dirty and poor but ask the ones who live within the invisible walls that are always threatened by bulldozers and they'll say that Swarga is exactly what the name suggests. Heaven. The girls, Deepa who is blind, Rukshana who's exploring her sexual orientation, Padma the studious one, Banu who paints graffiti for a cause and Joy who was once Anand - lean on each other just like their mothers do. Their profound friendship and loyalty to each other is part of what makes this novel phenomenal. Although their mothers are almost destitute, they protect the girls with a fierceness that only a mother can weild. This book is about women who wake up everyday and do what they have to do so that their children don't starve, it's about motherhood and also of daughters nurturing their mothers. A People's History of Heaven is of the women whose palm lines read misfortune and loss but it is also of the girls who dream of going to college and giving their mothers a better life.
I've said it before and I'll say it again, when it comes to writing about women, nobody does it better than women writers. This book was beautiful in every sense. I thank @divyashankar553 for gifting me this gorgeous novel