Product Description

Astha has everything an educated, middle-class Delhi woman could ask for - a loving husband and affluent surroundings - and yet is consumed with a sense of dissatisfaction. She begins an extra-marital affair with a younger woman, the widow of a political activist and jeopardizes everything.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #168849 in Books
• Published on: 2004-02-19
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 310 pages

Julie Myerson, Guardian
'Enthralling, convincing, absorbing . . . A magnetically alert, deeply readable novel.'

From the Back Cover
Astha has everything an educated, middle-class woman could ask for: comfortable surroundings, children and a dutiful loving husband. So why should she be consumed by a sense of unease and dissatisfaction? And when she begins a relationship with another woman, is she liberating herself from her marriage, past and culture - or foolishly jeopardising everything she has?

About the Author
Manju Kapur lives in New Delhi, where she is a teacher of English literature at Miranda House College, Delhi University. Her first novel, ‘Difficult Daughters', received tremendous international acclaim, won the Commonwealth Prize for First Novels (Eurasia Section), and was a number one bestseller in India.

Customer Reviews

A double affair
This book is enjoyable on all sorts of levels and deals with many issues facing India today.

It has as its central theme women. Women and marriage and love and politics and sexuallity and religion. A heady brew which could very easily boil over into a messy novel. The fact that Kapur manages to control her plot is a tribute to the skill of an emerging talent.

I also learnt a lolt from the book. On the factual side I gained a deeper understanding of what was going on in the 1980's and 1990's when the Hindu fundamentalist BJP were the main challenge to the corrupt Congress I party.

But this book is more than facts, it is about emotions and sexuality. About how much a woman has the right to expect and about how women are controlled and manipulated. Most of all it is about fear. Fear of going against social convention by marrying for love. Fear about breaking social convention by leaving your husband and his family for the love of another woman. And the fear of the society which imposes those social conventions. Yes society is very affraid.

This book has all of that and more. And it's thoroughly enjoyable as well

A book with a message.
I have just finished reading "A Married Women" and are very sorry that there are no more. Every page was a pleasure - very straight-forward language, always right to the point. No unnecessary explanations or words. Just pure action. The novel is about the loves and life of a contemporary Indian women. A women that asks a bit more of life, than tradition will automatically give her. It also gives a very interesting and profound describtion of India today, and the everyday life of Indian women. The special touch of female love gives the novel even more value and describes feelings and senses that can be transfered to any society of the world. A very relevant book, indeed!