ABOUT THRITY UMRIGAR

Thrity Umrigar is an assistant professor of English at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, where she teaches creative writing and literature. She is the author of six books and writes for book section of The Boston Globe. Umrigar worked as a journalist at the Washington Post and Cleveland Plain Dealer. She won a Nieman Fellowship to Harvard University, and has a doctorate degree from Kent State University; a master’s degree from Ohio State; and a bachelor’s degree from Bombay University.

OTHER BOOKS BY THRITY UMRIGAR

Bombay Time (2001)

At the wedding of a young man from a middle-class apartment building in Bombay, the men and women of this unique community gather together and look back on their youthful, idealistic selves and consider the changes the years have wrought.

The Space Between Us (2006)

Poignant, evocative, and unforgettable, The Space Between Us is an intimate portrait of a distant yet familiar world. Set in modern-day India, it is the story of two compelling and achingly real women: Sera Dubash, an upper-middle-class Parsi housewife whose opulent surroundings hide the shame and disappointment of her abusive marriage, and Bhima, a stoic illiterate hardened by a life of despair and loss, who has worked in the Dubash household for more than twenty years. Umrigar's extraordinary novel demonstrates how the lives of the rich and poor are intrinsically connected.

If Today Be Sweet (2007)

The recent death of her beloved husband, Rustom, has taken its toll on Tehmina Sethna. Now, while visiting her son, Sorab, in his suburban Ohio home, she is being asked to choose between continuing her old life in India and starting a new one in this unfamiliar country with her son, his American wife, and their child. Her destiny is uncertain, and soon the plight of two troubled young children next door will force the most difficult decision she has ever faced. Ultimately the journey is one that Tehmina must travel alone.

First Darling of the Morning: Selected Memories of an Indian Childhood (2004)

A poignant and brave exploration of childhood's less lovely spaces, First Darling is a sensitive, vividly-relived memoir that captures the innocence and confusion of a small Indian girl struggling against the paradoxes that rock her life. Told with startling honesty, the memoir paints an unforgettable picture of middle-class life in contemporary Bombay.

The Weight of Heaven (2009)

When Frank and Ellie Benton lose their only child, seven-year-old Benny, to a sudden illness, the perfect life they had built is shattered. Filled with wrenching memories, their Ann Arbor home becomes unbearable, and their marriage founders. Then an unexpected job half a world away in Girbaug, India, offers them an opportunity to start again. But Frank's befriending of Ramesh—a bright, curious boy who quickly becomes the focus of his attentions—will lead the grieving man down an ever-darkening path with stark repercussions.

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