Publisher: The Dial Press
Publication Date: April 2013
Categories: Family Life, Literary, India
Source: Random House
Description:
Anand is a Bangalore success story: successful, well married, rich. At least, that’s how he appears. But if his little factory is to grow, he needs land and money, and, in the New India, neither of these is easy to find.
Kamala, Anand’s family’s maid, lives perilously close to the edge of disaster. She and her clever teenage son have almost nothing, and their small hopes for self-betterment depend on the contentment of Anand’s wife: a woman to whom whims come easily.
But Kamala’s son keeps bad company, and Anand’s marriage is in trouble. The murky world where crime and land and politics meet is a dangerous place for a good man, particularly one on whom the well-being of so many depends.
Kamala, Anand’s family’s maid, lives perilously close to the edge of disaster. She and her clever teenage son have almost nothing, and their small hopes for self-betterment depend on the contentment of Anand’s wife: a woman to whom whims come easily.
But Kamala’s son keeps bad company, and Anand’s marriage is in trouble. The murky world where crime and land and politics meet is a dangerous place for a good man, particularly one on whom the well-being of so many depends.
My Thoughts:
I’m smitten with tales set in India. I’m besotted by convincing characters. I’m crazy about skillful prose. The Hope Factory contains everything on my literary wish list.
This is the tale of two families. Anand and his family seem to have it all. Kamala and her son live on the very edge of poverty. In reality both families are dealing with matters that could send them over the brink to ruin.
This novel is populated with corrupt politicians, shady coworkers, and unseemly friends. Anand and Kamala even have to be cautious of their own family members who don’t have their best interests at heart.
At the core of The Hope Factory is the desire that Anand and Kamala have to be good parents. I was especially struck by the struggle that Kamala goes through to make sure that her son is educated and able to rise above their current station.
The desire for a better and secure future is something we can all understand. Lavanya Sankaran uses that theme to write an outstanding story.
The Relentless Reader 