November 2012
The Brown Bag group will meet on
Wednesday November 7th @ 1 pm
to discuss "Secret Daughter"
by Shilpi Somaya Gowda
"Gowda's debut novel opens in a small Indian village with a young woman
giving birth to a baby girl. The father intends to kill the baby (the
fate of her sister born before her) but the mother, Kavita, has her
spirited away to a Mumbai orphanage. Meanwhile, in San Francisco, Somer,
a doctor who can't bear children, is persuaded by her Indian husband,
Krishnan, to adopt a child from India. Somer reluctantly agrees and they
go to India where they coincidentally adopt Kavita's daughter, Asha.
Somer is overwhelmed by the unfamiliar country and concerned that the
child will only bond with her husband because Asha and Krishnan will
look alike, they will have their ancestry in common. Kavita, still
mourning her baby girl, gives birth to a son. Asha grows up in
California, feeling isolated from her heritage until at college she
finds a way to visit her birth country".