About The Secrets Between Us
• Paperback: 400 pages
• Publisher: Harper Perennial; Reprint edition (June 25, 2019)
“The women at the heart of this novel inhabit the harsh world of the urban Indian poor, and struggle separately and together for dignity and survival. Thrity Umrigar has written a moving human tale that vividly brings to life both the women and the city of Mumbai.”—Salman Rushdie
Bhima, the unforgettable main character of Thrity Umrigar’s beloved national bestseller The Space Between Us, returns in this triumphant sequel—a poignant and compelling novel in which the former servant struggles against the circumstances of class and misfortune to forge a new path for herself and her granddaughter in modern India.
“It isn’t the words we speak that make us who we are. Or even the deeds we do. It is the secrets buried in our hearts.”
Poor and illiterate, Bhima had faithfully worked for the Dubash family, an upper-middle-class Parsi household, for more than twenty years. Yet after courageously speaking the truth about a heinous crime perpetrated against her own family, the devoted servant was cruelly fired. The sting of that dismissal was made more painful coming from Sera Dubash, the temperamental employer who had long been Bhima’s only confidante. A woman who has endured despair and loss with stoicism, Bhima must now find some other way to support herself and her granddaughter, Maya.
Bhima’s fortunes take an unexpected turn when her path intersects with Parvati, a bitter, taciturn older woman. The two acquaintances soon form a tentative business partnership, selling fruits and vegetables at the local market. As they work together, these two women seemingly bound by fate grow closer, each confessing the truth about their lives and the wounds that haunt them. Discovering her first true friend, Bhima pieces together a new life, and together, the two women learn to stand on their own.
A dazzling story of gender, strength, friendship, and second chances, The Secrets Between Us is a powerful and perceptive novel that brilliantly evokes the complexities of life in modern India and the harsh realities faced by women born without privilege as they struggle to survive.
Social Media
Please use the hashtag #thesecretsbetweenus and tag @tlcbooktours and @harperperennial.
Purchase Links
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About The Space Between Us
• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Harper Perennial Modern Classics; First Edition first Printing edition (May 3, 2011)
“This is a story intimately and compassionately told against the sensuous background of everyday life in Bombay.” —Washington Post Book World
“Bracingly honest.” —New York Times Book Review
The author of Bombay Time, If Today Be Sweet, and The Weight of Heaven, Thrity Umrigar is at adept and compelling in The Space Between Us—vividly capturing the social struggles of modern India in a luminous, addictively readable novel of honor, tradition, class, gender, and family. A portrayal of two woman discovering an emotional rapport as they struggle against the confines of a rigid caste system, Umrigar’s captivating second novel echoes the timeless intensity of Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God, Betty Smith’s A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, and Barbara Kingsolver’s The Poisonwood Bible—a quintessential triumph of modern literary fiction.
Social Media
Please use the hashtag #thespacebetweenus and tag @tlcbooktours and @harperperennial.
Purchase Links
HarperCollins | Amazon | Barnes & Noble
About Thrity Umrigar
Thrity Umrigar is the author of seven novels Everybody’s Son, The Story Hour, The World We Found, The Weight of Heaven, The Space Between Us, If Today Be Sweet, and Bombay Time; a memoir, First Darling of the Morning; and a children’s picture book, When I Carried You in My Belly. A former journalist, she was awarded a Nieman Fellowship to Harvard and was a finalist for the PEN Beyond Margins Award. A professor of English at Case Western Reserve University, she lives in Cleveland, Ohio.
Find out more about Thrity at her website, and connect with her on Facebook.
Instagram Features
Both novels will be featured together during this tour.
Tuesday, June 25th: Instagram: @readvoraciously
Wednesday, June 26th: Instagram: @owlslittlelibrary
Friday, June 28th: Instagram: @beritaudiokilledthebookmark
Saturday, June 29th: Instagram: @book.hang.o.ver
Saturday, June 29th: Instagram: @tarheelreader
Sunday, June 30th: Instagram: @crystals_library
Wednesday, July 3rd: Instagram: @theunreadshelf
TBD: Saturday, June 29th: Instagram: @lavieestbooks