Lindas Book Obsession Review of “The Storyteller’s Secret” by Sejal Badani

Lindas Book Obsession Review of “The Storyteller’s Secret by Sejal Badani  Lake Union Publishing, 2018

Sejal Badani, Author of “The Storyteller’s Secret” has written a captivating, intriguing, emotional , riveting, and emotional story. The Genres for this novel are Fiction, Women’s Fiction, Historical Fiction with a touch of Romance. The timeline is in both the present and the past when it pertains to the characters or events in the story. The story is told in both the United States, and India. The author vividly describes the colorful cast of characters and the landscapes with great detail.

Jaya, a journalist is devastated after her third miscarriage, and feels that her marriage is falling apart. Jaya’s parents try to be there for her, but here is something that is missing in her relationship with her mother. Jaya feels that she is at loose ends and wants to find herself, and happiness again.  While she is at her parent’s house, there is news that her mother’s father is dying, and the mother is requested to come to India. Instead Jaya uses this as an opportunity to heal and discover information about her family, that her mother has never talked about. Jaya’s mother has never wanted to go back to India, and doesn’t discuss what happened.

Jaya is determined as a journalist that she will write about her trip to India. Ravi, her grandmother’s former servant  meets Jaya, and starts to tell her grandmother’s story. Java was not aware of the deep secrets, courage, hurt, and dreams that her grandmother had.  Jaya’s grandmother was a writer as well. Why hasn’t  Jaya’s mother ever told her about her grandmother? Jaya learns not only many Indian customs, she  becomes aware of the history of India during the British occupation. She sees evidence of both poverty and beauty. Jaya visits the orphanage, and sees the discrimination among the different classes.

I enjoyed the descriptions of the customs, holidays, foods, and people in India. I appreciate that the author describes the Caste system, and provides the historical background that adds so much to India’s history.  This is a story of dreams, love and finding oneself. I would highly recommend this for readers who enjoy Historical Fiction.