Paperback, 240 pages
Published December 21st 2010 by Hyperion (first published February 2nd 2010)
edition language- English
original title- One Amazing Thing
Synopsis-
Late afternoon sun sneaks through the windows of a passport and visa office in an unnamed American city. Most customers and even most office workers have come and gone, but nine people remain. A punky teenager with an unexpected gift. An upper-class Caucasian couple whose relationship is disintegrating. A young Muslim-American man struggling with the fallout of 9/11. A graduate student haunted by a question about love. An African-American ex-soldier searching for redemption. A Chinese grandmother with a secret past. And two visa office workers on the verge of an adulterous affair.
When an earthquake rips through the afternoon lull, trapping these nine characters together, their focus first jolts to their collective struggle to survive. There's little food. The office begins to flood. Then, at a moment when the psychological and emotional stress seems nearly too much for them to bear, the young graduate student suggests that each tell a personal tale, "one amazing thing" from their lives, which they have never told anyone before. And as their surprising stories of romance, marriage, family, political upheaval, and self-discovery unfold against the urgency of their life-or-death circumstances, the novel proves the transcendent power of stories and the meaningfulness of human expression itself. From Chitra Divakaruni, author of such finely wrought, bestselling novels as Sister of My Heart, The Palace of Illusions, and The Mistress of Spices, comes her most compelling and transporting story to date. One Amazing Thing is a passionate creation about survival--and about the reasons to survive.
When an earthquake rips through the afternoon lull, trapping these nine characters together, their focus first jolts to their collective struggle to survive. There's little food. The office begins to flood. Then, at a moment when the psychological and emotional stress seems nearly too much for them to bear, the young graduate student suggests that each tell a personal tale, "one amazing thing" from their lives, which they have never told anyone before. And as their surprising stories of romance, marriage, family, political upheaval, and self-discovery unfold against the urgency of their life-or-death circumstances, the novel proves the transcendent power of stories and the meaningfulness of human expression itself. From Chitra Divakaruni, author of such finely wrought, bestselling novels as Sister of My Heart, The Palace of Illusions, and The Mistress of Spices, comes her most compelling and transporting story to date. One Amazing Thing is a passionate creation about survival--and about the reasons to survive.
My Review-
Nine different individuals, different origins, a visa office and an
unexpected earthquake that forces them to huddle there for hours together. The
charecters as mentioned in the synopsis are a punky teenager with an
unexpected gift. An upper-class Caucasian couple whose relationship is
disintegrating. A young Muslim-American man struggling with the fallout of
9/11. A graduate student haunted by a question about love. An African-American
ex-soldier searching for redemption. A Chinese grandmother with a secret past.
And two visa office workers on the verge of an adulterous affair.
The concept is pretty nice and it has to be since it’s
Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni. She is one of those creative people out there who
gets the craziest ideas regarding the concepts that make into fabulous reads.
This one however gave me a few minor glitches. The narration is outrageous and
the introductory part where Uma Sinha notices all the others around and those
little things is really good. What bothers me is, how she tends to make the
transitions from tale to tale. The introduction of the idea of sharing one
amazing thing from each one’s life could have been presented in a better way
though. The tales otherwise are inspiring in every way possible. After Palace
Of Illusions, no one needs to explain how good Divakaruni is at narration.
My Rating- 4 outta 5 stars.
About The Author-
Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni is an award-winning author and poet. Her work has been published in over fifty magazines, including The Atlantic Monthly and The New Yorker, and her writing has been included in over sixty anthologies. Her works have been translated into fourteen languages, including Dutch, Hebrew and Japanese. Her other children’s books are The Conch Bearer and The Mirror of Fire and Dreaming. Her novel The Mistress of Spices was made into a movie. She lives in Houston with her husband and two sons, and teaches at the University of Houston.
