Flame Tree Road
Shona Patel
Mira, Jun 30 2015, $14.95
ISBN: 9780778316657
In 1870s East Bengal, India young Biren Roy grieves the death of
his father. However, even more shocking
to Biren is to observe the pariah treatment by previously loving family towards
his mom for the crime of widowhood. He
vows to change this insane outcast custom.
Biren goes to England to study law and while there joins the
women’s suffrage movement. Eventually he
returns to India with a goal to fight for women’s rights starting with
education. Though he feels he climbs Everest
in winter and several times is ready to give up on what seems a helpless cause,
his beloved Maya keeps him fighting for what each knows is right.
Occurring decades before his descendant’s 1940s
Teatime for the Firefly drama, idealistic Biren’s battle to change the Caste
System turns this into an excellent Victorian.
His efforts come at a high cost to him and Maya; as community and family
ostracize them; but with his beloved’s encouraging him, Biren continues “To
dream the impossible dream; … To right the unrightable wrong” (Man of La Mancha
- "The
Impossible Dream (The Quest)".
Harriet Klausner
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