Daughters of the House

"A wondrous accomplishment--a wise story about love, loyalties among women, and the punishments of betrayals."--Amy Tan

It should have been a day for celebrating: Eighteen-year-old Chchanda, her younger sister Mala, and their old servant Parvati receive news that their beloved aunt is returning from nearby Ranchi with a husband. Their meager ways of eking out a living will come to an end. There will be a man in the house and, as a lawyer, he is rich. But instead of rejoicing, the daughters of the house are threatened.

Rich with nuances and cadences of human emotion, Daughters of the House explores the true meaning of love, betrayal, and compassion. Filled with the sights, sounds, and mores of contemporary rural India, Daughters of the House takes as its characters not only women, but their house, nature, and the society that enmeshes them. Borne along with Indrani Aikath-Gyaltsen's beguiling language, we come to know and experience their world, one that is strangely familiar, yet unlike any we have ever seen.

Praise for Daughters of the House

"An involving and engaging look at relationships that connect women in families. I found my own sisters, mother, and madrinas in Indrani Aikath-Gyaltsen's Indian women. A book that quietly, surely won me with its clarity and good writing."--Julia Alvarez, author of How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accent

" A] fine first novel . . . What begins as the narrator's amusing campaign of passive resistance darkens when sickness and betrayal invade the house and she learns that houses and families can devour as well as sustain."--The New Yorker

Until her death in 1993, Indrani Aikath-Gyaltsen was a freelance journalist and hotel owner in Darjeeling. She is the author of Crane’s Morning.