THE BOOK FAIR

Shoban Bantwal

Author:      Shoban Bantwal

Published: 2007

Genre:        Fiction; Cultural

Cover:        Paperback

Pages:        338

Review:

Shoban Bantwal is the author of several books of whose focus lies on the culture of India, Indian Americans, and primarily, women’s issues.

 

Twenty-one year old, Megha Ramnath wakes in the middle of the night to hear her husband, Suresh, and her mother-in-law, Chandra, plotting against her.  Megha, the third daughter of middle class parents, who haven’t the money for a good match, sell her with a promised dowry.   Chandra, jealous of Megha’s beauty, uses her for a slave; for Suresh, she is an object for his satisfaction.  After one year of marriage, having produced no child and her dowry unpaid, Chandra decides to murder Megha with the complicity of her son.

Megha panics and runs away; with nowhere else to go, Megha turns to Kiran Rao, a cousin of Suresh, who has always been kind to her.

 

 

Great topic hindered by melodrama, and detailed, repetitive explanations.