This is a really lovely, moving novel by Thrity Umrigar, about two women in modern-day India. Sera is a wealthy Parsi woman, and Bhima is her illiterate long-time servant. Umrigar tells the story from the perspective of both women, and in doing so shows how people's lives can be both very different and eerily similar at the same time.
Bhima has been Sera's servant forever, and they have seen each other through the hardships of each other's lives. Bhima has endured more than many women could - the betrayal of her husband, the death of her child, and the descent from the lower class into the life of the slum. But Sera has helped along the way, and has even paid to send Bhima's granddaughter to college, so that Maya will have a better life than her grandmother. Sera's life hasn't been easy, either, with a crazy, evil mother-in-law and an abusive husband, but Bhima has been there to nurse her through the pain, and Sera's daughter, Dinaz, views Bhima as almost a second mother.
But when something happens to come between the two families, we see who really is stronger, and we see who is more deserving of respect. It was a really great read - I couldn't put it down.
The Space Between Us
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