Difficult Daughters: A NovelSet against the tumult of the 1947 Partition, Manju Kapur’s acclaimed first novel captures a life torn between family, desire, and love The one thing I had wanted was not to be like my mother. Virmati is the eldest of eleven children, born to a respectable family in Amritsar. Her world is shaken when she falls in love with a married man. Charismatic Harish is a respected professor and her family’s tenant. Virmati takes up with Harish and finds herself living alongside his first wife. Set in Amritsar and Lahore and narrated by Virmati and her daughter, Ida, a divorcée on a quest to understand and connect with her departed mother, Difficult Daughters is a stunning tale of motherhood, love, and finding one’s identity in a nation struggling to discover its own. Winner of the 1999 Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for best first book (Eurasia Region) and shortlisted for the Crossword Book Award in India. |
Contents
Section 16 | |
Section 17 | |
Section 18 | |
Section 19 | |
Section 20 | |
Section 21 | |
Section 22 | |
Section 23 | |
Section 9 | |
Section 10 | |
Section 11 | |
Section 12 | |
Section 13 | |
Section 14 | |
Section 15 | |
Section 24 | |
Section 25 | |
Section 26 | |
Section 27 | |
Section 28 | |
Section 29 | |
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Common terms and phrases
Amritsar angan asked Virmati baby bangles Baoji beti Bhabhi canal Chhotti clothes darling daughter Diwali dupatta everything exams eyes face father feel friends Ganga garden ghee Giridhar girl gone Guddiya hand happened Harish head heart Hindu husband Indu inside kaajal Kailashnath Kanhiya Kasturi Kishori Devi kitchen knew Lahore Lajwanti Lala Diwan Chand leave Leela Lepel Griffin Road live marriage married mathri Mati mind morning mother Moti Cottage Muslim Muslim League Nahan never night pakoras Paro Parvati Pehnji Pitaji Professor Punjab salwar salwar kameezes sari Shakuntala Shakuntala Pehnji silent sister sitting smiled Somnath stared started stay Suraj Prakash Swarna Lata talk Tarsikka tears tell things thought Virmati told tonga tried turned veranda Virmati looked Viru voice waiting walked wife woman women