Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #41565 in Books
• Published on: 1999-06-07
• Binding: Paperback
• 256 pages

Synopsis
Spanning three generations, this story centres around a woman born at the turn of the 20th century into an austere Punjabi family. It tells of an illicit affair and its wider political and social implications - not least the vexed issue, for Indian women, of marriage versus education.

Customer Reviews

meaningful and descriptive
this book draws you in.. even more if you can relate to it coming from a similar background. It made me realise things about the women in my life, mothers, sisters etc and how we tend to overlook the similarities which we share, or had shared once upon a time.

Definitely one to read...
I loved this book, it was beautifully written and sometimes I had to remind myself that it was based on life in 30's India. As some of the topics were so relevant even now in asian culture in the UK.

The fact that it highlighted female education made me appreicate the freedom we have now, but also the stigma these women had to put up with just so they could learn.

I highly recommend this book!

Extraordinary and universal
This is a rare thing: a novel that sticks in the mind long after you finish the last page. It is beautifully written, with a story that is fascinating in so many ways. Yet it is set in the real world; not just a real place and time, but one that feels real, seeping out of the pages to envelope the reader.

I picked up this novel as part of a triple pack (a Faber 'threebie') of Indian writers. I don't have an Indian background, and I've never visited India - I just read alot, and I like reading different kinds of books. The package looked like a literary bargain, and it was - it was well worth the price just for this one novel, which I doubt I would have discovered in any other way.

"Difficult Daughters" is a fascinating insight into many things: into history; into a distant culture; but, most importantly, into human hearts and minds. To an Anglo-Saxon reader, the distance in time and place may, on one level, make this escapist novel; but on another level it does what all the best escapist (or fantasy) novels do: it makes you look inside yourself.

Despite being set during the Indian Partition, this is not an overtly political novel. However, a surprising amount of information about Partition - the political crisis that literally tore apart a nation - is imparted. Enough information to make this reader curious enough to investigate further...