Honor ⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑

Genre: Literary Fiction

US Publication: January 4, 2022

Print: 336 pages

Audio: 11 hours 19 minutes

Confetti Rating: 5 stars

REVIEW:

Honor is one of those books that’s not always easy to read but unquestionably easy to recommend.

Thrity Umrigar has written a contemporary novel that’s literary fiction at its finest. While set in India rather than Afghanistan, it deserves a place on shelves next to Khaled Hosseini’s modern classics The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns. I can think of no higher praise to get the point across that Honor is worth reading.

It’s 2018, and Indian-American journalist Smita returns to the country of her birth to cover the story of Meena, a Hindu woman whose brothers set fire to her home… killing her Muslim husband and disfiguring her in the process. Their interfaith marriage was a viewed as an abomination to Meena’s family, so murdering the couple was an attempt to avenge such a dishonor. Meena is a strong-willed survivor though, and she’s taking her brothers to court in pursuit of justice for her husband and to inspire other victimized women to do the same against their own perpetrators.

Given the plot’s content, it should come as no surprise that there are very difficult scenes to read. They’re worth wading through though if it means you get to experience this beautiful, fast-moving story about love, prejudice, and sacrifice.

Honor is currently available on the Hoopla library app in both ebook and audiobook formats. My thanks to the author and Algonguin books for providing me with a gifted print copy to review.

PUBLISHER SYNOPSIS:

In this riveting and immersive novel, bestselling author Thrity Umrigar tells the story of two couples and the sometimes dangerous and heartbreaking challenges of love across a cultural divide.

Indian American journalist Smita has returned to India to cover a story, but reluctantly: long ago she and her family left the country with no intention of ever coming back. As she follows the case of Meena—a Hindu woman attacked by members of her own village and her own family for marrying a Muslim man—Smita comes face to face with a society where tradition carries more weight than one’s own heart, and a story that threatens to unearth the painful secrets of Smita’s own past. While Meena’s fate hangs in the balance, Smita tries in every way she can to right the scales. She also finds herself increasingly drawn to Mohan, an Indian man she meets while on assignment. But the dual love stories of Honor are as different as the cultures of Meena and Smita themselves: Smita realizes she has the freedom to enter into a casual affair, knowing she can decide later how much it means to her.

In this tender and evocative novel about love, hope, familial devotion, betrayal, and sacrifice, Thrity Umrigar shows us two courageous women trying to navigate how to be true to their homelands and themselves at the same time.