The Woman Who Knew Gandhi

Based on an aside in Mahatma Gandhi''s autobiography in which he mentions a brief but seductive youthful flirtation with an Englishwoman The Woman Who Knew Gandhi boldly imagines a long correspondence between a spiritual leader from the East and an ordinary woman from the West. In 1948 just after Gandhi''s assassination Martha Houghton receives a letter from Gandhi''s son who himself lies dying of tuberculosis in Bombay. Having found a stash of her letters to his father he asks to meet her. The request sends Martha into a tailspin for her husband knows nothing of her lifelong friendship with Gandhi. Martha and her husband are forced to reevaluate their long marriage and she must find a way to reconcile the disparate halves of her life. Moreover their small community becomes a magnet for the press and Martha finds her words twisted and used against her. Ultimately she must decide whether to meet her old son''s friend on his deathbed or to remain in England and mend the rift in her marriage. Charmingly and elegantly written The Woman Who Knew Gandhi explores the many definitions of love and friendship and the surprises of marriage.