Before We Visit the Goddess

<b>A beautiful deeply affecting (<i>Kirkus Reviews</i>) novel from the bestselling award-winning author of <i>Sister of My Heart</i> and <i>The Mistress of Spices</i> about three generations of mothers and daughters who must discover their greatest source of strength in one another.</b> <p/>Sweeping across the twentieth century from the countryside of Bengal India to the streets of Houston Texas <i>Before We Visit the Goddess</i> takes readers on an extraordinary journey through the lives of three unforgettable women: Sabitri Bela and Tara. As the young daughter of a poor rural baker Sabitri yearns to get an education but schooling is impossible on the meager profits from her mother's sweetshop. When a powerful local woman takes Sabitri under her wing her generous offer soon proves dangerous after Sabitri makes a single unforgiveable misstep. Years later Sabitri's own daughter Bela haunted by her mother's choices flees to America with her political refugee lover--but the world she finds is vastly different from her dreams. As the marriage crumbles and Bela decides to forge her own path she unwittingly teaches her little girl Tara indelible lessons about freedom and loyalty that will take a lifetime to unravel. <p/>Told through a sparkling symphony of voices--those of the women themselves and the men who loved them--<i>Before We Visit the Goddess</i> captures the gorgeous complexity of these multi-generational and transcontinental relationships showing the deep threads of love and hope and bravery that define a family and a life. This is a gracefully insightful dazzlingly descriptive and covertly stinging tale [that] illuminates the opposition women must confront generation by generation as they seek both independence and connection (<i>Booklist</i> starred review).