The Story Hour: A Novel

by Thrity Umrigar

Overview

From the critically beloved, bestselling author of The World We Found and The Space Between Us, whom the New York Times Book Review calls a “perceptive and . . . piercing writer,” comes a profound, heartbreakingly honest novel about friendship, family, secrets, forgiveness, and second chances.

An experienced psychologist, Maggie carefully maintains emotional distance from her patients. But when she meets a young Indian woman who tried to kill herself, her professional detachment disintegrates. Cut off from her family in India, Lakshmi is desperately lonely and trapped in a loveless marriage to a domineering man who limits her world to their small restaurant and grocery store.

Moved by her plight, Maggie treats Lakshmi in her home office for free, quickly realizing that the despondent woman doesn’t need a shrink; she needs a friend. Determined to empower Lakshmi as a woman who feels valued in her own right, Maggie abandons protocol, and soon doctor and patient have become close friends.

But while their relationship is deeply affectionate, it is also warped by conflicting expectations. When Maggie and Lakshmi open up and share long-buried secrets, the revelations will jeopardize their close bond, shake their faith in each other, and force them to confront painful choices.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780062344120
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	08/26/2014
Edition description:	Large Print
Pages:	464
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Thrity Umrigar is the author of five other novels—The World We Found, The Weight of Heaven, The Space Between Us, If Today Be Sweet, and Bombay Time—and the memoir First Darling of the Morning. An award-winning journalist, she has been a contributor to the Washington Post, Boston Globe, and Huffington Post, among other publications. She is the winner of the Nieman Fellowship to Harvard, Cleveland Arts Prize, and Seth Rosenberg Prize, and is the Armington Professor of English at Case-Western Reserve University.

Editorial Reviews

Thrity Umrigar has an uncanny ability to look deeply into the human heart and find the absolute truth of our lives. The Story Hour is stunning and beautiful. Lakshmi and Maggie will stay with readers for a very long time.

Luis Alberto Urrea

[a] thoughtful and moving new novel...

Cleveland Plain Dealer

“A taut, suspenseful page-turner with depth, heart, and psychological credibility whose believable and enduring characters ponder the meaning of friendship, the challenges of marriage, and the value of storytelling itself.

Boston Globe

Past misdeeds threaten the friendship of a psychologist and her immigrant patient in a fictional tale that asks, are we more than the sum of our mistakes?

O Magazine

Skillful…. Much like a therapy session, this deft, well-paced novel contains breakthroughs and growth, and, at its end, leaves the reader wistful that the allotted time on the couch has run out.

Booklist

I was hooked immediately…. The book will make a great movie…with actresses vying for the roles of these strong, unforgettable characters.

Midlife at the Oasis

The Story Hour is…a compelling testament to the power of story to unite people, transcend differences, and ultimately heal both the self and relationships.

BookBrowser Review

Thrity Umrigar’s novel The Story Hour showcases her ability to bring to life characters who are…sympathetic yet flawed in ways we can all relate to.… I read deep into the night to find out how their stories end, and I predict you will, too!

Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

With grace, wisdom and incredible compassion, Thrity Umrigar has woven together the lives of two seemingly dissimilar women who must learn—against steep odds—to forgive each other and themselves.

Paula McClain

06/30/2014
The sixth novel from Umrigar (The Space Between Us) is a deeply moving portrait of connection, disconnection, and missed connections set in an unnamed Northeastern university city. Maggie Bose is a black psychologist married to an Indian man; when an Indian woman, Lakshmi, is admitted to the hospital after a suicide attempt, Maggie is assigned the case. She understands the woman’s sense of isolation, and offers to treat her pro bono. Lakshmi is lonely, married to a man who doesn’t love her, and she works without pay in his grocery store and restaurant. Maggie tries to befriend Lakshmi by telling her stories about her life. When Lakshmi brings food as thanks, Maggie and her husband encourage the patient to accept catering jobs in order to earn her own money. Soon, the lines blur between patient and friend. A secret from Lakshmi’s past and the impulsive action that follows her discovery of Maggie’s affair change their lives. Although Umrigar is sometimes heavy-handed, this compassionate and memorable novel is remarkable for the depth and complexity of its characters. (Aug.)

Publishers Weekly

“A taut, suspenseful page-turner with depth, heart, and psychological credibility whose believable and enduring characters ponder the meaning of friendship, the challenges of marriage, and the value of storytelling itself.” — Boston Globe

“With grace, wisdom and incredible compassion, Thrity Umrigar has woven together the lives of two seemingly dissimilar women who must learn—against steep odds—to forgive each other and themselves.” — Paula McClain, author of The Paris Wife

“Past misdeeds threaten the friendship of a psychologist and her immigrant patient in a fictional tale that asks, are we more than the sum of our mistakes?” — O Magazine, “10 Books to Pick Up Now”

“Thrity Umrigar has an uncanny ability to look deeply into the human heart and find the absolute truth of our lives. The Story Hour is stunning and beautiful. Lakshmi and Maggie will stay with readers for a very long time.” — Luis Alberto Urrea, author of The Hummingbird's Daughter

“Thrity Umrigar’s novel The Story Hour showcases her ability to bring to life characters who are…sympathetic yet flawed in ways we can all relate to.… I read deep into the night to find out how their stories end, and I predict you will, too!” — Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, author of Oleander Girl and Sister of My Heart

“The sixth novel from Umrigar (The Space Between Us) is a deeply moving portrait of connection, disconnection, and missed connections…. [T]his compassionate and memorable novel is remarkable for the depth and complexity of its characters.” — Publishers Weekly

“Umrigar’s novel begins as a small domestic drama and develops into a forceful examination of identity, cultural isolation and the power of storytelling.…An impressive writer, Umrigar delivers another smart, compulsively readable work.” — Kirkus Reviews

“Skillful…. Much like a therapy session, this deft, well-paced novel contains breakthroughs and growth, and, at its end, leaves the reader wistful that the allotted time on the couch has run out.” — Booklist

“Explores cross-cultural friendships, troubled marriages, love, loss, and forgiveness with [Umrigar’s] characteristic wisdom, humor, and warmth.… This satisfying, psychologically complex story will appeal to a wide range of readers.… its characters are both smart and likable without being sentimental or idealized.” — Library Journal (starred review)

“[a] thoughtful and moving new novel...” — Cleveland Plain Dealer

“The Story Hour is…a compelling testament to the power of story to unite people, transcend differences, and ultimately heal both the self and relationships.” — BookBrowser Review

“I was hooked immediately…. The book will make a great movie…with actresses vying for the roles of these strong, unforgettable characters.” — Midlife at the Oasis

From the Publisher

Skillful…. Much like a therapy session, this deft, well-paced novel contains breakthroughs and growth, and, at its end, leaves the reader wistful that the allotted time on the couch has run out.

Booklist

2014-07-03
Umrigar's (The World We Found,2012, etc.) novel begins as a small domestic drama and develops into a forcefulexamination of identity, cultural isolation and the power of storytelling.When Dr. Maggie Bose first meetsLakshmi after the young woman's suicide attempt, she can already guess atLakshmi's story—abusive husband, familial separation, cultural isolation—a lifein America that is so like those of the many other immigrant women she'streated. They begin weekly therapy sessions, though Lakshmi seems unaware ofthe purpose—are they not new friends, simply sharing their stories? Lakshmi'stales of her Indian village, of the time she saved the landowner's son, hercare for the village elephant, her pride at a hard-won education, are shadowedby her current life in a cold Midwestern college town. Her husband treats herwith contempt, demands she work long hours at his restaurant and, perhapsworse, forbids contact with her family in India. Maggie suspects Lakshmi isless in need of psychotherapy than autonomy. Maggie and her husband, Sudhir (anIndian math professor, a fact that delights Lakshmi), begin promoting her as acaterer to their friends. Maggie teaches her to drive. Lakshmi's independenceeven improves her marriage. And then Lakshmi tells Maggie a story that rewritesher whole narrative; she did a shocking thing, and for these six years inAmerica, she has been the villain and her husband, the victim. Maggie is nowrepelled, though she has her own secrets. Despite 30 years of happy marriage toSudhir, she is having a reckless affair. When Lakshmi finds out, this destroysthe story of Maggie and Sudhir's enviable marriage, and so Lakshmi takesrevenge. The novel begins with a suicide attempt and ends with the regeneratingpossibilities of storytelling as a means of healing, of shaping identity, ofendlessly re-creating the world. An impressive writer, Umrigardelivers another smart, compulsively readable work.

Kirkus Reviews