I’m blessed with a large extended family of women whom I admire. All are strong, capable, vital women and they came to mind quite often as I read the story of True Sisters. Sandra Dallas does a great job of telling the tale of strangers who become each other’s strength as they are united on the grueling journey of the Martin Handcart Company from Iowa City to Salt Lake City.

Mormon converts were given or fashioned two-wheel carts, which families would have to push or pull across the Midwest and the Rockies. I wasn’t familiar with the story of the Martin Handcart Company, and their trek from Iowa City to Salt Lake City; Dallas brings this historical event to life with these characters. I learned a lot while enjoying the story.

As the story unfolded, I had many moments where I thought about my own ancestors and the journeys…

This is a major saga, on the lines of A Fine Balance(reviewed earlier in this forum). Both books track the lives of a few friends/ relatives in the backdrop of major political events in India. There, however, the similarity ends. This is a very different book from Rohinton Mistry’s and the style is also different. This book is set in India in 1950’s, when the newly independent India was trying to find its feet.

This book tracks the life of four families. The family of Mahesh Kapoor, a politician and a minister in the government of (the invented state of) Purva Pradesh is one of them. He is an irascible but honest and straightforward minister who would not like to use his considerable influence even to help his family members in trouble. He has two sons, Pran, a quiet, literate, university professor and a wayward, vagabond, mercurial Maan, who is infatuated with Saeeda Bhai,
who is a courtesan with…