Darjeeling: A Novel

By Bharti Kirchner

Book Overview

Novelist and award-winning cookbook author Bharti Kirchner has written a sweeping family saga, a first class fiction about forbidden love and family honor.

Set in the mountainous tea plantations of Darjeeling, India and in New York City, Darjeeling is the story of two sisters - Aloka and Sujata - long separated by their love for Pranab, an idealistic young revolutionary. Pranab loves Sujata, the awkward, prickly, younger sister but, out of obligation, marries Aloka, the gracious, beautiful, older sister. When all of their secrets are revealed, the three are forced to leave Darjeeling. Aloka and Pranab flee to New York City and Sujata to Canada. The story opens ten years later, when their Grandmother summons everyone home to the family tea plantation to celebrate her birthday. Despite the fact that Aloka is still very much in love with Pranab, they are in the process of getting a divorce. Sujata, who is still single, runs a successful business importing tea, a business that doesn't fill her broken heart. This trip forces the sisters to wrestle with their bitterness and anger and to try to heal old wounds. What complicates matters is that Pranab, too, is going to India and is intent on rekindling his relationship with Sujata now that his marriage is over.

Although filled with the rich foods, smells, and social confines of another culture, Darjeeling is really about the universally human emotions of jealousy, rivalry, love, and honor. It is a complex novel about family, exile, sisterly relations, and how one incident can haunt us for the rest of our lives.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0312316062
• ISBN13: 9780312316068
• Release Date: August 2003
• Publisher: St. Martins Press-3PL
• Length: 302 Pages
• Weight: 0.65 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.5" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

Very good book

i love this book, it has a mixture of both the American/Canadian and Indian culture. Both sisters in this book are very intelligent. They share the same culture as women of India, but they are from different worlds. One sister is adventurous living in Canada, and the other sister is very accomplished living in New York...an amazing book!

Delicious, sensitive, and contemplative

The author explores the soul of two sisters in this wise and witty novel. Her descriptions alone would have made it. I recommend reading this novel with a good cup of tea.

Good read

Fast paced, good descriptions of scenery, tea business, manhattan immigrant life and food, food..food. I like Kirschner's writing more for food descriptions than anything else and this is no exception. In general the storyline is more like a hindi movie - two women for one man and a benevolent 'thakur ma' and an angry dad and so on. But credit should be given to the author for portraying women - particularly immigrant women's dilemmas with clarity and respect. The ending also speaks for the same thing, both women doing what they believe in and letting the men know and get what they deserve!

Captivating Darjeeling

Wonderful and powerful book. Even if you had never been to Darjeeling, or to India, for that matter, it gives you an unexplained sensation of melancholy, as if the place belonged to your ancestry. It even made me run for the Internet to know more about Darjeeling and the tea business. A real lesson in geography and tea-tasting!Apart from the obvious mastery of the language in descriptions, the story is an ode to self-growth and sufficiency, both for men and women. As in reality, love is not a bed of roses. Instead, real love is the ability to love oneself first, then the other. This can be seen when Aloka simulates being Parveen; she fell in love with her first, then discovered that she loved Jahar just as well.It is a book I greatly recommend for all those who enjoy an intricate story without the classical happy ending.

A stunning novel

This is a thoroughly captivating and insightful book that takes the reader to the beautiful mountain town of Darjeeling and to an intriguing family that owns a tea plantation. There are issues of love, displacement,and self-renewal all told through a lyrical voice. The story and the characters stay with you. This is Kirchner's best work by far.