Home tells the story of a middle class merchant family, the Banwari Lals, who specialize in the creation and sale of saris and and other traditional Indian garb. The story begins when Sona, the beautiful teenage daughter of another merchant family of somewhat lesser standing, enters the store with her mother, and the eldest Banwari Lal son falls immediately in love with her. Reluctantly, his family agrees to arrange a marriage. Theirs is a love match, and the couple are happily married with one not-so-small problem: after 10 years, Sona has been unable to conceive. Her sister Rupa is in the same situation.

The first half of [Home] focuses on Sona's adjustment to living with her in-laws and, later, the other sons' new wives and children. As the only childless wife, she is forced to "mother" Vicky, son of her husband's sister whose unhappy marriage ended when she burned to death in a suspicious "cooking accident." Sona dislikes the boy because he is dark-skinned and sullen, and Vicky isn't treated much better by the rest of the family. When Sona finally gives birth, Vicky is more or less left on his own. At this point, the book shifts attention to her daughter, Nisha, a beautiful child who (for reasons left unstated here) falls victim to violent nightmares and is sent to live with her aunt, Rupa, and her husband, who care for her as if she were her own child. As she reaches adulthood, Nisha's longing to be a modern woman clashes with her family's traditional values.

The book started out slowly slowly for me, and I had a hard time empathizing with Sona and her many complaints. Things got better when Nisha was the focus, but unfortunately, the ending was a real disappointment, one that I wasn't expecting and that knocked my rating down by a full point. On the positive side, Home provided some insight into traditional Indian families and their values and how both are being forced to adapt to social change. ( )

Home tells the story of three generations of a cloth merchant family, once living in Lahore and now operating an expanding business in Delhi having moved there after Partition. Kapur has a knack for creating vivid character description, but unfortunately few of the cast of characters were people I ended up feeling much empathy for. The plot also meanders a lot, and while the way some characters drop away and plot threads are abandoned may be realistic—no one's life has a tidy narrative arc—it can be frustrating for the reader. And that ending... I couldn't decide if it was trite or darkly subversive, but either way it felt abrupt and anticlimactic.

[Those of you with triggers may want to note that this book contains extended graphic descriptions of child sexual abuse.] ( )

Kapur writes in a direct, lucid style with generous use of Indian English idioms to give an authentic feel to the dialogues. Her characters and the situations that confront them are grounded in reality.

Unfortunately though the plot development seems to reinforce rather than challenge the idea that a woman's happiness depends on having a husband, children and a large extended family. Feminists will probably not enjoy this book.

Spoiler alert:

There are also some passages about sexual encounters involving a minor which are uncomfortably long. ( )

The book is about a large joint family in Delhi and the main focus is on Two sisters and their journey. The book traces the lives of the 2nd generation in their family but main focus being the female protagonist...Nisha (daughter of one of the sisters)....What makes this book worth reading is the reality....reality of an average human being....however good we might be but there always is a bit of selfishness in each of us which lurkes in the background and comes on forefront with circumstances......The book very beautifully shows the closeness and destructive limitations of Indian family values. Its shows how much we might claim of being advanced but their are limitations in our thinking....Even Now having a son is considered better than having a daughter....the book also beautifully captures the differences which exist in our society as far as caste et all are concerned.....respect in society is more important than the happiness of our own family... The story also has instances with which u’ll relate to immediately but we never discuss them out in open.....The book is worth a read.....it made me buy another book of this author.....hoping that this will also be as interesting a read....    ( )