A review by hywar
China Room by Sunjeev Sahota

3.0

This was a heartbreaking novel that was full of masterful writing, but for whatever reason it just didn't capture my attention. The story mostly centers around Mehar, a woman in 1929 who has just been married. In Mehar's case, however, her marriage ceremony was shared with two other woman who also married into the family, leaving her unsure which man she actually married. She meets her husband only when she is called upon at night, at which point it is so dark she is unable to see him. Though she tries her best to come to a conclusion, she is ultimately unable to determine which of the siblings she has been married off to - until one day when she overhears a conversation and becomes confident in her answer - however, whether she is right or not will have a huge impact on her.

I think where the book didn't work for me was due to the inclusion of the other character's storyline. In addition to Mehar, every once in a while there is a chapter that follows a young man who travels to India in 1999 to live with family and try to overcome his heroin addition. These chapters - and the storyline itself - ultimately seemed completely unnecessary. I didn't care about him at all, nor did I really see what he added. I feel like I would have much rather stayed with Mehar the entire time.