By Larissa Page
At the young age of seven, Rakhi escaped a bad situation and found herself on the streets of Bombay, quickly befriending Babloo and a rag tag gang of other street kids. She is now twenty-three and after a long stint in a girls home through her adolescent years, renowned human right lawyer Guari Ma’am has given her a “second chance” in the form of a job as an office assistant and covering her rent in a Mumbai slum. When a particular foreign intern takes an interest in Rakhi, asking her to show him the real India and encouraging her to reach farther than her office job, Rakhi’s life becomes more complicated and potentially fuller and brighter than before—unless things come falling down before that happens.
I really enjoyed this novel, both the current timeline storyline and the back story that leads us through Rakhi’s history as a street kid. The plot was quick moving and engaging, while the characters were complex. I felt drawn back every time I put it down, which is something that can be a bit hit or miss with literary fiction. I also felt like I learned a lot about a setting I wasn’t previously familiar with.
I think the relationships and characters in this novel will be a bit of a wake-up call for the typical reader. Particularly Guari Ma’am and Alex, both of whom act as if they are helping Rakhi, maybe even considered selfless or generous when in fact, their actions don’t really help Rakhi in the way she may necessarily need it, or perhaps not the way she needs it anymore. There seems to be a sense that these characters and relationships make the helpers feel like they are doing such great things and great work but ultimately, they haven’t asked Rakhi for her side of the story or her wants/needs. In the same vein, though, there is some aspect of Rakhi not acting in a way that reflects she recognizes she’s being helped at all. I really liked this aspect of the book as it gives us that realness, that people are not all good or all bad; they are complex.
There was a point toward the end that I wondered if it was not going to be terribly uplifting (which is okay), even though I felt it was hopeful all the way along. I am thrilled to say though, that once I finished, I felt this book had a lot of heart and a lot of hope through struggles and mistreatment. It didn’t shy away from realities, but it did show us the other side of the realities we often don’t see, the human side.
Thank you, McClelland & Stewart, an imprint of Penguin Random House Canada, for the complimentary copy in exchange for an honest review.