Award Winning Author Thrity Umrigar Visits Lakewood Public Library For Free Event
The bestselling author of The Space Between Us and The World We Found returns to the Lakewood Public Library with a deeply provocative story of two women whose worlds collide during a time of crisis. With her trademark emotional depth and complex characters, Umrigar weaves a nuanced story of betrayal and forgiveness that challenges our notions of family, friendship and marital love.
This free event will take place Thursday, September 18 at 7 p.m. in the Main Library Auditorium.
Maggie is a skilled, disciplined psychologist who has always maintained strong boundaries with her patients. Grounded by a decades-long marriage to her loving husband Sudhir, she has left her troubled past far behind her.
Lakshmi is an Indian immigrant trapped in a loveless marriage. For the past six years, she has been cut off from her family, toiling thanklessly in her husband’s restaurant. Emotionally isolated, she makes a failed attempt to take her own life.
When Maggie is assigned to see a new patient at the end of a long day, she tries to beg out of it. She’s distracted by dinner plans and suspects that she has been given this patient only because she is a “woman of color” who happens to be married to an Indian man. But despite these superficial bonds, these two women do share one genuine connection—they are both mourning the loss of their mothers. Determined to help make a difference in a young woman’s life, Maggie offers to treat Lakshmi at her home office once a week free of charge, despite the breach of professional protocol.
Over time, Maggie’s involvement with another man develops into a full-blown affair. She knows she is being foolish—she loves her husband—but some broken part of herself keeps her going back for more. And for the first time since coming to America, Lakshmi finds some independence, learning to drive and earning her own money as a caterer and housekeeper. But with each story shared, the lines between the personal and professional lives of doctor and patient become irrevocably blurred. When they learn each other’s most shocking secrets, their friendship is pushed to its limit.
Breathtaking in its narrative risks and refusal to shy away from its characters’ frailties and flaws, Umrigar’s latest is an unforgettable exploration of friendship, forgiveness and the nature of marriage. Most of all, it is a moving tribute to the act of storytelling, the universal tradition that has the power to heal us all. Books will be available for sale and signing at the event.
For more information visit www.lakewoodpubliclibrary.org/literary.