The World We Found: A Novel

( 24 )

Overview

As university students in late 1970s Bombay, Armaiti, Laleh, Kavita, and Nishta were inseparable. Spirited and unconventional, they challenged authority and fought for a better world. But over the past thirty years, the quartet has drifted apart, the day-to-day demands of work and family tempering the revolutionary fervor they once shared.

Then comes devastating news: Armaiti, who moved to America, is gravely ill and wants to see the old friends she left behind. For Laleh, ...

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The World We Found: A Novel

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More About This Book

Overview

As university students in late 1970s Bombay, Armaiti, Laleh, Kavita, and Nishta were inseparable. Spirited and unconventional, they challenged authority and fought for a better world. But over the past thirty years, the quartet has drifted apart, the day-to-day demands of work and family tempering the revolutionary fervor they once shared.

Then comes devastating news: Armaiti, who moved to America, is gravely ill and wants to see the old friends she left behind. For Laleh, reunion is a bittersweet reminder of unfulfilled dreams and unspoken guilt. For Kavita, it is an admission of forbidden passion. For Nishta, it is the promise of freedom from a bitter, fundamentalist husband. And for Armaiti, it is an act of acceptance, of letting go on her own terms.

The World We Found is a dazzling masterwork from the remarkable Thrity Umrigar, offering an unforgettable portrait of modern India while it explores the enduring bonds of friendship and the power of love to change lives.

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Editorial Reviews

People Magazine
"Luminous. . . . Wise and absorbing, Umrigar’s novel has the rich, chaotic vibrancy of a Mumbai marketplace."
Nina Sankovitch
"Asparkling and sharp slice of life."
Booklist (starred review)
“Umrigar renders a vivid portrait of modern-day India as she meditates upon the power of friendship, loyalty, and love. Like her previous works, The World We Found is eloquent and evocative, bitter and sweet.”
Boston Globe
"The World We Found is stunning in its credibility and nuance. . . . This is a novel that rewards reading, and even re-reading. The World We Found is a powerful meditation."
People
“Luminous. . . . Wise and absorbing, Umrigar’s novel has the rich, chaotic vibrancy of a Mumbai marketplace.”
Cleveland Plain Dealer
"The World We Found is absorbing and resonant."
Minneapolis Star Tribune
"There’s ample discussion to be had here on the topics of family, friendship, religion and marriage. Umrigar is a lively storyteller. The women are sympathetic characters, their relationships fully realized and deeply felt. . . . Umrigar’s evocative world is one worth finding, indeed."
Washington Post
"A storyteller through and through, Umrigar ensures that her characters face up to the costs and consequences created by their choices, right or wrong, principled or unprincipled."
Booklist
"Umrigar renders a vivid portrait of modern-day India as she meditates upon the power of friendship, loyalty, and love. Like her previous works, The World We Found is eloquent and evocative, bitter and sweet."
Library Journal
Forty years after they were university students together in Bombay, three friends reunite to reminisce about their glory days when they learn that one is dying of cancer. (LJ 10/15/11)
Publishers Weekly
Umrigar (The Space Between Us) illustrates India’s national identity crisis over the past 40 years through four friends who reconnect in this absorbing novel. Divorcée Armaiti is living in America with a daughter at Harvard when she’s given six months to live. Her last wish is to see her three best friends again—Laleh, Kavita, and Nishta, all in Bombay. In college, as idealistic Communists, they’d been inseparable, but now they’re barely in touch. Kavita is a successful architect, Laleh a wife and mother, and none of them have heard from Nishta in years. When they finally find her beneath a burkha in a strict Muslim neighborhood, it becomes clear that Nishta’s husband, Iqbal, a fellow university idealist turned fundamentalist, will be the biggest obstacle to fulfilling Armaiti’s final desire. Umrigar is never shy in her portrayal of a divided India, deftly pinpointing major issues facing the country today and tracing them through a legacy of cultural death and rebirth. Armaiti’s ruminations on unexpectedly encountering the end of one’s life and Kavita’s struggle to live openly as a lesbian despite supportive friends act as strong secondary narratives. Though none of the major story elements Umrigar employs are remotely fresh, her characters make this a rewarding novel. (Jan.)
Library Journal
The bad news arrives over the long-distance line bridging the United States and India. Laleh's dearest friend, not yet 50, is coping with a fatal diagnosis. Eschewing debilitating treatments, to the chagrin of her daughter Diane and former husband Richard, the clear-eyed Armaiti nurses one desire: to revisit those heady student days when she, Laleh, Kavita, and Nishta were inseparable activists, marching, protesting, and speaking out for a new India. But over the ensuing years life has gotten in the way of the revolution. Kavita, a renowned architect, has embraced her once hidden sexual orientation, while Nishta's increasingly fundamentalist husband, Iqbal, has buried her personhood beneath a burka. The invitation to America acts as a catalyst, propelling the story forward as the three friends reconnect, reminisce, and contemplate the vagaries of life that will take them to Armaiti's door. VERDICT From the first sentence of this insightful novel, Umrigar (The Space Between Us; The Weight of Heaven) will enthrall readers with her deft portrayal of the depth of women's friendships, the many facets of love, and the oh-so-human conundrum—whether to live with one's choices or walk away. Oprah would love this book, and so will your patrons. Buy multiples. [See Prepub Alert, 7/25/11.]—Sally Bissell, Lee Cty. Lib. Syst. Ft. Myers, FL
Kirkus Reviews
A crisis reconnects four young firebrands from college who have grown apart as adults, in a story dense with sensitive scrutiny. Straddling India and the United States, this tale of friends reunited in disparate maturity is heavy on internal reflection, lighter on events. The highpoint of Armaiti, Nishta, Laleh and Kavita's student years in late-1970s' Bombay was their involvement in political activity, in particular a demonstration that saw two of them arrested. Now, three decades later, Nishta, renamed Zoha, has spent years in an oppressive marriage to Iqbal, a Muslim who has grown very devout. Impulsive Laleh is comfortably settled with her influential husband Adish and children; architect Kavita has finally come to terms with her lesbianism; and, in America, Armaiti has just been diagnosed with an incurable brain tumor, a catastrophe that pulls the four together again at Armaiti's request. Laleh and Kavita are free to leave India immediately but Nishta has to be found, persuaded and then assisted to escape. Umrigar (The Weight of Heaven, 2009, etc.) enhances her simple scenario via sympathetic analysis of all perspectives including Iqbal's and Adish's, whose final confrontation at the airport reflects some of the prejudices and practices of modern India. Umrigar extends a boundless, occasionally lyrical sympathy to her cast, but her slender plot, even padded with extensive rumination, still disappoints.
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Product Details

  • ISBN-13: 9780061938351
  • Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
  • Publication date: 7/31/2012
  • Series: P.S. Series
  • Pages: 336
  • Sales rank: 213,340
  • Product dimensions: 5.38 (w) x 7.84 (h) x 0.80 (d)

Meet the Author

Thrity Umrigaris the author of five novels and the memoir First Darling of the Morning. A former journalist, she is a winner of the Nieman Fellowship to Harvard and a finalist for the PEN/Beyond Margins Award. A professor of English at Case Western Reserve University, she lives in Cleveland, Ohio.

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Customer Reviews

Average Rating 4
( 24 )
Rating Distribution

5 Star

(12)

4 Star

(6)

3 Star

(5)

2 Star

(1)

1 Star

(0)

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See All Sort by: Showing 1 – 20 of 24 Customer Reviews

  • Anonymous

    Posted September 5, 2012

    Be Careful

    Excellent, well paced and thoughtful,I was aware throughout how lucky woman are in this country to be able to make decisions for themselves and how careful one must be with their vote so that doesn't change.

    Was this review helpful? Yes  NoThank you for your feedback.   Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.

  • Anonymous

    Posted July 3, 2012

    Expanding horizons

    This book introduced me to political and social issues i never knew existed. It expanded my view of the world and took me to India for awhile. The plot was intriguing. I couldn't wait to turn each page.

    Was this review helpful? Yes  NoThank you for your feedback.   Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.

  • Anonymous

    Posted April 12, 2012

    Engaging

    I feel like the author has lived every word of what she writes. Her characters are real and even if you are not familiar with the customs or places you can imagine them to be true.

    Was this review helpful? Yes  NoThank you for your feedback.   Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.

  • Anonymous

    Posted March 15, 2012

    What our choices bring

    Well written and thought provoking. If you have ever wondered about the passions and causes you felt as a young adult and wondered what happened to them - this is the book to make you ponder the question even more.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted March 5, 2012

    Good read

    Fairly good, but challenging at times to believe characters' responses to situations. Without close knowledge of the misogynistic Moslem culture, it would be difficult to understand why one of the main characters would tolerate her circumstances. Character development is so-so. Still, a fair read.

    0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

    Was this review helpful? Yes  NoThank you for your feedback.   Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.

  • Posted March 5, 2012

    more from this reviewer

    This is a beautiful story about friendship, written with such in

    This is a beautiful story about friendship, written with such insight and empathy. Although about four female friends, I found that the male characters, Iqbal and Adish, were just as interesting as the female characters.

    I think this is one of the best books I have read this year, and I learned so much about Indian society in the 1970s and today.

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  • Posted March 5, 2012

    fair

    I did not like the writers style. It read more like chick lit than the novel I was expecting.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted February 14, 2012

    Hope there is a sequel

    I enjoyed the book, it just ended too soon. I hope there will be a sequel

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  • Anonymous

    Posted February 11, 2012

    The World We Found

    Excellent account of contemporary versus recent-past
    social trends in India. Characters are developed seamlessly and plot moves quickly, captivating and holding reader's interest; however, although aftermath of ending will be obvious to readers, ending was disappointingly abrupt. A sequel would be great.

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  • Posted February 10, 2012

    Well worth reading

    The four women we meet are compelling and amazingly real.

    Was this review helpful? Yes  NoThank you for your feedback.   Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.

  • Posted February 4, 2012

    ENTERTAINING

    I LOVED ALL THE CHARACTERS AND THEIR HUMOR. I FELT FOR EACH OF THEIR SITUATION. BUT I WAS DISAPPOINTED WITH THE ENDING

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  • Posted February 1, 2012

    Lovely and thought-provoking...

    In the late 1970's Laleh, Kavita, Nishta, and Armaiti, were idealistic young students protesting the political conditions in India, passionate about their beliefs and seemingly willing to risk everything to see equality for India's religious and economic minorities. Thirty years later they are all living different lives then they imagined and they haven't stayed the close-knit group they once were. When Armaiti learns she is dying her last wish is to have all of her friends together again. But the reunion opens old wounds and brings to life carefully hidden secrets. Each of the women is forced to examine the life she is living and compare it to her past dreams and ambitions. How do you reconcile the present with the wild, ambitious plans you made in college?

    This is the first book by Thrity Umrigar that I have read, but it won't be the last. Each of the women in this book was interesting and likeable, though all were very different. The contrast of their differences alongside the obvious similarities that made them friends gave the story a very realistic depth and added layers to the plot. The World We Found was the best of both worlds, an easy read that made me think - about India, politics, and most of all how the idealism of university days fades into the reality of middle age forcing each person to hold strong to their ideals while bending them to fit ever changing lives and circumstances. In the end it was an eye-opening, yet lovely read about friendship, change, and growing up.

    0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

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  • Posted January 31, 2012

    GREAT STORY

    I LOVED THIS BOOK, I ANYTHING WRITTEN BY THRITY UMRIGAR, I TOO GREW UP
    IN THE 70'S SO CAN RELATE TO THE TIMES. THIS IS A GREAT STORY OF LIFE TIME FRIENDSHIPS AND HOW OUR WORLD CHANGES OR HOW LIFE CHANGES US, BUT
    OUR FRIENDSHIPS REMAIN STRONG.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted January 25, 2012

    I highly recommend all of Thrity Umrigar's books

    Thrity Umrigar is a wonderful author who brings alive not only India, but all of her characters. This book feels like it needs a sequel and I hope one is in the works. It is a book that you don't want to end. She writes perceptively of the lives of women in a changing society. In The World We Found she writes about the changes in people from their youth as social activists and later as they mature. I have read all of her books and feel that she is underappreciated.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted January 14, 2012

    Enjoyed it very much!

    Ive read every book by her and this is my favorite by far. My only complaint is that I didnt care for the ending, but thats just me. Its definately a great read!

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  • Anonymous

    Posted December 25, 2011

    No text was provided for this review.

  • Anonymous

    Posted December 10, 2012

    No text was provided for this review.

  • Anonymous

    Posted April 18, 2012

    No text was provided for this review.

  • Anonymous

    Posted April 10, 2012

    No text was provided for this review.

  • Anonymous

    Posted March 16, 2012

    No text was provided for this review.

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