by Avni Doshi
First published 2019
Antara watches her mother Tara slip away as dementia takes hold. Tara had always been unpredictable. She abandoned her marriage to chase a spiritual teacher. She lived homeless on city streets. She moved in with strange artists and defied every social convention. Now, as Tara's memories fade, Antara must reckon with their turbulent history together. She revisits her childhood in 1980s Pune, her time at Catholic boarding school in Maharashtra's mountains, and her early years as an artist in Bombay. Each memory forces Antara to examine her own anxieties and compulsions. The more she remembers, the more she recognizes herself in her mother's choices. Doshi traces the complicated bond between mother and daughter, where love and resentment intertwine. Memory proves unreliable, truth becomes subjective, and family loyalty battles personal survival.
Genres: literary-fiction, contemporary, 21st-century, family-drama
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: unreliable-narrator
Setting: Bombay, Maharashtra, Pune
Period: 1980s
288 pages · Hardcover · Fourth Estate India
Content warnings: mental-illness