Author: Vikram Seth

I picked up this book from the shelf in March, thinking it was a novel. When I found it was a biography I was okay with it as I assumed it was a biography of the author. In fact, it is a biography of his Uncle and his aunt, by marriage. I continued to read it while I waited for books I had on order from the library. I finally decided it was time to get it off my Currently Reading shelf in Goodreads.

The book is well written and the background of his Shanti Uncle (this is how he is referred to in the book) comes from family history. The life of his Auntie Henny (who was German) was mainly put together from here correspondence to and from friends. Henry escaped Germany just before war broke out but her mother and sister were killed at different camps near the end of the war.

The author made an interesting comment at the end of the book mentioning that both Shanti and Henny lived through traumatic times in the 20th Century – life in India under British Rule and the subsequent partition into India and Pakistan , the Holocaust, and the Second World War to name just a few.

Goodreads Rating: * * *