I listen at 1.5x the narration speed. I was listening at the hairdressers at the weekend (our hairdresser is doing one person per room due to Covid so I wasn't disturbing anybody and I was listening whilst my colour was doing its stuff). The hairdresser asked me if I was listening to a book in a foreign language. I guess if you're not as used to the Indian accent as I am, it could be hard to follow at speed. A powerful, urgent novel that wields issues of gender and class like a blade. . . . This intergenerational novel asks hard questions about who we are, who we can become, and what awaits on the other side of our becoming. Thrity Umrigar is known as a bold and generous writer, and The Secrets Between Us only further establishes her reputation.” — Wiley Cash, author of The Last Ballad I absolutely LOVED this book (I had to write it in capitals). I felt the storyline was fresh and exciting. The main storyline revolves around Bhima and another woman, Pavarti, who has had an even rougher life and sells six bruised cauliflowers daily to barely eke out a living. At first Pavarti believes Bhima looks down on her. Both women are scarred by past experience and have built walls around their hearts to avoid getting hurt. They almost accidentally form business partnership, and a friendship gradually develops between them.

I wouldn’t want to give too much away but this is a happier book despite the tales of hardship, showing the power of friends and that, despite many negative changes, some things in modern India are changing for the better. Thrity Umrigar just does a wonderful job of making us care about these characters and want them be happy and although I had small reservations about the ending, I was glad that there was a happier resolution. A wonderful read for me. There were some serious themes in this book. Some of the most prevalent themes included poverty, sexual objectification, and inequity between the caste system. This is not easy to read at times. It’s about the the haves and the have nots and is a commentary on class, but thankfully touching on the possibility of changing attitudes. It’s about friendships, hardships, identity and self esteem, about women with strength of character who somehow manage to uplift the reader in spite of their tough circumstances. It’s been a while since I read The Space Between Us. Having read that was my main reason for wanting to read this one. It could probably be read as a stand alone since some of what happened in the first book is reflected on here, but I think it was a more meaningful story having known Bhima from the first book. Doug Johnstone dipped his toes in the water of science fiction with Fault Lines, and now with The Space Between Us has dived in fully - but has not abandoned what I love about his novels, which is his amazing character work. Even if you are not a science fiction aficionado, you will enjoy this book. I highly recommend you give it a try.Their journey to find out more about Sandy and his kind was fraught with obstacles, both personal and from the outside, but as they sped towards their destination with determination, they work together to get through every single absurd series of events that was thrown their way. I felt their anxiety, their fear, but also the love and understanding they were learning to find.

Reflecting on how the movement has been marketed, wrapped and monetised, the spin-off books and decluttering series, he says: "I look in the bookshop at Marie Kondo's book and all the others, and I wonder, 'maybe I could write a book on how not to have anything?'" He concludes: "But in the end, I think 'wouldn't that be one book too many?'" This is about two older women primarily, their life sacrifices and tales- and the values they are given for their lives. Even unto their own values for themselves and the values they give each other. Bhima from The Space Between Us is one of them. I think you'd miss some of the ambiance in this if you had not read that book first. However, when it comes the realistic elements within a sci-fi novel, I want them to actually be rooted in reality. For that reason I was immediately annoyed with the first few chapters of this novel, especially with the ridiculous depiction of the hospital-scenes. Since it’s mentioned in the synopsis, and happens in the first few chapters, I don’t consider this a spoiler; the inciting incident involves our protagonists suffering a simultaneous, unexplained stroke and waking up within the hospital afterwards. What follows is a scene in which they’re all in a multi-patient open room, having woken up not 5 minutes earlier, only for a doctor (read: walking-plot-vehicle-of-exposition) to walk in and explain in detail what happened. This involves exposing patient-sensitive medical info to other patients (hello HIPAA violations!!), discharging patients mere minutes after suffering massive strokes and potential brain-damage, and quite a few medical inaccuracies that can’t be explained by “magic-alien-stroke”. The entire sequence reads incredibly amateurish on an exposition level, and feels written by someone who has never experienced a hospitalization themselves. As a chronically ill, cancer-survivor and MD: this stuff bothers me personally more than it might most.Parvati has nothing except a large mass growth to call her own. Her secrets lay deep within the darkness of her past where only she alone can find them. Her health and life depend on selling six old cauliflower at the fruit market until Bhima and her develop a business plan. Tougher than nails, Parvati relies on her past to gather strength and courage in her present. She challenges religion, the culture, and her newfound companion Bhima. The trio sneak Sandy off the beach and out of the reaches of officialdom. That choice will lead the group across large swathes of Scotland and into all kinds of trouble - from Ava's husband, from the police, from a mysterious chap in a sharp suit with hulking minders, and from a journalist, Ewan, who starts out following the story but ends up engulfed by it. The gap that is the space between us has to close if we are ever to realise the true potential of the human race.