{"product_id":"the-space-between-us-a-novel-isbn-9780061121241","title":"The Space Between Us: A Novel","description":"“This is a story intimately and compassionately toldagainst the sensuous background of everyday life in Bombay.” —\u003cem\u003eWashington Post Book World \u003c\/em\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e“Bracingly honest.”\u003cem\u003e —New York Times Book Review \u003c\/em\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cem\u003e \u003c\/em\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe author of \u003c\/em\u003e\u003cem\u003eBombay Time\u003c\/em\u003e,\u003cem\u003eIf Today Be Sweet\u003c\/em\u003e, and \u003cem\u003eThe Weight of Heaven\u003c\/em\u003e, Thrity Umrigar is at adept andcompelling in \u003cem\u003eThe Space Between Us\u003c\/em\u003e—vividlycapturing the social struggles of modern India in a luminous, addictivelyreadable novel of honor, tradition, class, gender, and family. A portrayal oftwo woman discovering an emotional rapport as they struggle against theconfines of a rigid caste system, Umrigar’scaptivating second novel echoes the timeless intensity of ZoraNeale Hurston’s \u003cem\u003eTheir Eyes Were WatchingGod\u003c\/em\u003e, Betty Smith’s \u003cem\u003eA Tree Grows inBrooklyn\u003c\/em\u003e, and Barbara Kingsolver’s \u003cem\u003eThePoisonwood Bible\u003c\/em\u003e—a quintessential triumph of modern literary fiction. | \u003cp\u003eEach morning, Bhima, a domestic servant in contemporary Bombay, leaves her own small shanty in the slums to tend to another woman's house. In Sera Dubash's home, Bhima scrubs the floors of a house in which she remains an outsider. She cleans furniture she is not permitted to sit on. She washes glasses from which she is not allowed to drink. Yet despite being separated from each other by blood and class, she and Sera find themselves bound by gender and shared life experiences.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eSera is an upper-middle-class Parsi housewife whose opulent surroundings hide the shame and disappointment of her abusive marriage. A widow, she devotes herself to her family, spending much of her time caring for her pregnant daughter, Dinaz, a kindhearted, educated professional, and her charming and successful son-in-law, Viraf.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBhima, a stoic illiterate hardened by a life of despair and loss, has worked in the Dubash household for more than twenty years. Cursed by fate, she sacrifices all for her beautiful, headstrong granddaughter, Maya, a university student whose education -- paid for by Sera -- will enable them to escape the slums. But when an unwed Maya becomes pregnant by a man whose identity she refuses to reveal, Bhima's dreams of a better life for her granddaughter, as well as for herself, may be shattered forever.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ePoignant and compelling, evocative and unforgettable, The \u003cem\u003eSpace Between Us\u003c\/em\u003e is an intimate portrait of a distant yet familiar world. Set in modern-day India and witnessed through two compelling and achingly real women, the novel shows how the lives of the rich and the poor are intrinsically connected yet vastly removed from each other, and vividly captures how the bonds of womanhood are pitted against the divisions of class and culture.\u003c\/p\u003e | \u003cp\u003e“Umrigar is a perceptive and often piercing writer.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eNew York Times Book Review\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Out of India’s seething hotch-potch of humanity Thrity Umrigar has created two vivid female characters, each representative of thousands of real-life Indian women.... At the heart of this novel is the symbiotic relationship—the essence of distance and intimacy—between Sera and Bhima which, after 20 years, remains defined by their differing class, education and wealth.... This ultimately tragic story is told against the vibrant backdrop of modern Mumbai.... The book’s pages glow with descriptions of the city.... [Umrigar] tackles, across the span of her characters’ lives, many of the issues affecting India today: poverty engendering poverty; the power of privilege and wealth; domestic violence; class; education; women’s rights; AIDS. This adds richness, making \u003cem\u003eThe Space Between Us\u003c\/em\u003e far more than an analysis of fate and a portrait of the bonds of womanhood. It is also a powerful social commentary on the glorious and frustrating jigsaw puzzle that is modern India.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Economist\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“[\u003cem\u003eThe Space Between Us\u003c\/em\u003e] is a great book; I love it.... I couldn’t stop reading until Bhima had her amazing epiphany of freedom at the edge of the sea. I am so happy for Thrity Umrigar! And proud of her as a woman, too.... It is so precious to have a book about a woman one rarely even “sees” in society, whether Indian or American.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eAlice Walker on THE SPACE BETWEEN US\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Umrigar is a perceptive and often piercing writer.... Her portrait of Sera as a woman unable to transcend her middle-class skin feels bracingly honest.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eNew York Times Book Review\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"The Space Between Us is a novel that is hard to forget.\" - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Times (London)\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Umrigar’s imagery, gorgeous yet unflinching in its realism, creates a rich picture of Indian society in Bombay, from slum to skyscraper. Her symbolism is lovely.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eCharlotte Observer\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“A deeply affecting novel about a wealthy widow and her maid, who form a bond across the gulfs of class and status in modern-day Bombay.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eLife magazine\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“[The Space Between Us] is provocative and disturbing.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eBoston Globe\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Intimately and compassionately told.... Sensuous.... Umrigar’s memorable characters will live on for a long time.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eFrances Itani, Washington Post Book World\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Umrigar’s schematic novel illustrates the intimacy, and the irreconcilable class divide, between two women in contemporary Bombay.... Umrigar’s writing achieves clarity.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Umrigar is a highly skilled storyteller...the novel’s plot and depth of characterisation provide irresistible momentum.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eTime Out New York\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Sadness suffuses this eloquent tale, whose heart-stopping plot twists reveal the ferocity of fate.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eBooklist (starred review)\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Heartbreaking.... A subtle, elegant analysis of class and power... that quietly roars against tyranny.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eKirkus Reviews\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Poignant.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eEntertainment Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“With humanity and suspense, novelist Thrity Umrigar tackles love, loyalty, injustice - and survival.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eMarie Claire\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“On a sunny afternoon, all right in my world, I burst into deep, heaving tears. I was reading \u003cem\u003eThe Space Between Us\u003c\/em\u003e by Thrity Umrigar.... Umrigar’s prose is so powerful, so true, and so cleanly written that if offers one of those moments in which those of us who live by fiction live for: when writing throws back the veil between life and art.... [\u003cem\u003eThe Space Between Us\u003c\/em\u003e] preaches nothing and yet teaches everything about compassion.... The wonderful thing about such transcendent writing is precisely that you don’t have to “live by fiction” to appreciate it. Don’t miss \u003cem\u003eThe Space Between Us\u003c\/em\u003e. Thrity Umrigar has written a novel that deals with the problem of the present as informed by the past, and it is a marvelous thing.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003ePages Magazine\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Thrity Umrigar has created two wonderfully sympathetic characters who do much to make [India’s] complex nature comprehensible.... This is a story intimately and compassionately told against the sensuous background of everyday life in Bombay.... The life of the privileged is harshly measured against the life of the powerless, but empathy and compassion are evoked by both strong women, each of whom is forced to make a separate choice. Umrigar is a skilled storyteller, and her memorable characters will live on for a long time.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eFrances Itani, Washington Post Book World\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“From page one, Thrity Umrigar’s novel thrusts us into a story that’s at once heartbreaking and soothing. Chronicling the tumultuous lives of two women, \u003cem\u003eThe Space Between Us\u003c\/em\u003e doesn’t flinch from its scrutiny of human suffering; then it gently, gently guides us toward healing.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eSamrat Upadhyay, author of The Royal Ghosts\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Set in contemporary Bombay, Umrigar’s second novel is an affecting portrait of a woman and her maid, whose lives, despite class disparity, are equally heartbreaking.... A subtle, elegant analysis of class and power. Umrigar transcends the specifics of two Bombay women and creates a novel that quietly roars against tyranny.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eKirkus Reviews\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Remarkable.... What makes \u003cem\u003eThe Space Between Us\u003c\/em\u003e so engrossing is its ability to make readers feel empathy for its subjects.... To read Umrigar’s novel is to catch a glimpse of a foreign culture, for better and for worse. Yet while the class divide between Bhima and Sera provides much of the conflict in \u003cem\u003eThe Space Between Us,\u003c\/em\u003e it isn’t the only source of disagreement. Class colors everything, but in the end, Umrigar shows, every one of life’s ups and downs are available to us all.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eSan Francisco Chronicle\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Umrigar renders a collection of compelling and complex characters, from kind, conflicted Sera to fiercely devoted Bhima. Sadness suffuses this eloquent tale, whose heart-stopping plot twists reveal the ferocity of fate.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eBooklist (starred review)\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"William Morrow Large Print","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44888599167205,"sku":"NP9780061121241","price":26.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9780061121241.jpg?v=1730229418","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/products\/the-space-between-us-a-novel-isbn-9780061121241","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}