Burnt Sugar

Tara shares a piece of her daughter's name. But Antara is not sure she wants such a tether between them. In her youth, Tara was reckless and irresponsible, dragging Antara to an ashram before becoming a beggar and chasing after a homeless artist. In Avni Doshi's brilliant, Booker Prize-shortlisted Burnt Sugar, Antara tells readers, "I suffered at her hands as a child, and any pain she subsequently endured appeared to me to be a kind of redemption--a rebalancing of the universe, where the rational order of cause and effect aligned."

Now an adult with her own life, marriage and career, Antara is reluctant to care for her mother as she endures the terrifying decay of dementia. Antara seems almost frightened by her own resentment, and yet she can't ignore the tenuous bond between herself and her mother, no matter how toxic. Set in Pune and Mumbai, India, Burnt Sugar is alive with sound and color and aching descriptions of both domestic life and harried adventure, especially as Antara attempts to create a home with her husband, Dilip, that is "free of grey, fuzzy edges." She wants to understand and be understood clearly, making art that explores "where patterns cease to exist." But relationships, especially those between blood, are rarely so easily studied, and Antara must first work to understand herself.

Doshi's debut is a thoughtfully parsed, deeply resonant novel. This is not a feel-good read, nor is it a quick and easy one, but rather one meant to be ruminated over. --Lauren Puckett, freelance writer

Powered by: Xtenit