Book Review - The Widows of Malabar Hill by Sujata Massey

My love for history novels probably took root back in my school years, when I was one of those rare history buffs who loved reading about WWI and the Indian freedom movement. I knew the dates of all major wars and signed treaties by heart and could easily hold a long monologue on even a less significant event of the world history. I might have also had a low attention span for as soon as Biology was introduced in the 9th grade, I had moved on to having a deep meaningful relationship with a dark green, voluminous book on microbiology. 

While history and its dates may have faded from my memory, the old world charm of these novels continue to wield their power on me in ways no other genre of books can. And the book - Widows of Malabar Hills by Sujata Massey does more than just that. For it has so many references to the city Mumbai - then Bombay, that brings back flooding memories of my first job ever out of my own city. In the novel, the office of the Mistry law firm is in Fort, South Bombay, the place where my office was headquartered at. I can imagine myself in those small lanes, almost as if I was part of the story. In the course of the book, I even pictured myself sitting on a table in the Taj Mahal Palace, overhearing the conversation of the Mistry family, as I continued to gaze at setting sun behind the Gateway of India. There is even a map of the old South Bombay with which I spent many excited hours, tracing all the lanes and spots I had visited. A picture of it if you are anything like me and love exploring maps, especially of known places. 

While the near reality of it all may have influenced my ratings for this book, emotions aside, Sujata Massey has based her novel on one such less known but significant time in Indian history when Cornelia Sorabji became the first female advocate to practice in India and eventually took up the cause of representing women's rights in the Indian legal system, which makes for a compelling read. 

Perveen Mistry is the first female lawyer in India and works with her father in his law firm. She begins working on the case of a deceased Mr. Omar Farid, who has left behind a large inheritance to his 3 muslim widows, sequestered off from public view in following their tradition of Purdah. Soon a mystery develops around his death and the inheritance involved. As Perveen goes about unraveling the mystery, she also takes up the cause of fighting for these women's rights and representing them in legal proceedings. Amidst this, Perveen has to fight her own personal battle of a bad marriage with the book alternating its chapters between her present and her past. 

I loved the amount of research that has gone into this book. The period and the historical context of the book is memorable and I thoroughly enjoyed revisiting some moments of the Indian history. Massey also managed to keep the characters and plot focused throughout the story. A small but a noticeable highlight for me was the title of each chapters. They were catchy short phrases that wittily summarized the chapter. And lastly, while it does not count for any additional points, I loved the design of the book cover as well as the pages inside. It had a beautiful old age font reminiscent of royal literature books. 

What didn't work for me was that the potency of the lead character was not fully explored and took the easy path of just solving a "Nancy Drew style" mystery. But again, it is unfair to expect all books to adhere to our expectations of literary thrill and detailing. Look at this as something you could read on a train journey or a light weekend read and you would really have no complaints. 

I gave it 4 stars on Goodreads rounding off my personal 3.5 rating. 


Happy Reading!
SSB