2011-15 - Secret Daughter, by Shilpi Somaya Gowda

15 - Secret Daughter, by Shilpi Somaya Gowda, 339 Pages, Harper Collins, 2010
WHY I PICKED IT: Shalini picked it for Book Club
ELAPSED TIME: 2 days
RATING: Meh

This is the story of an interracial couple in San Fransisco, who adopt a child from the husband's hometown of Mumbai... and the parallel story of the couple that gave up that child.  The story is well told, but somehow the characters are missing something - a warmth that would make them more than just characters of a story, and would propel this story into required reading status.

That being said, the story covers a lot of things worth thinking about: the stresses of infertility, choices between career and family, cultural tolerance and acceptance.  And on the Indian side, of the challenges of village life, of being a woman in a male-oriented society, and of the pull away from village life and the adjustment to Mumbai living.  Ultimately, it's a story about family.

EDIT - 2011-03-20 - Having thought about this book quite a lot further, I have downgraded this book from Very Good to Meh.  The writer's style is a simplistic (most of the characters lack depth), and several of the key characters are quite lacking (in a way that you don't want the protagonists in a novel to be).