About the book
Anita Desai, a three-time Booker finalist, sets the story in San Miguel, Mexico, where Bonita has come from India to study Spanish. Sitting on a bench in El Jardin, she senses that someone is watching her. An elderly woman approaches and says she knew Bonita's mother, that the two were friends when the mother lived in Mexico as a gifted young artist. Bonita insists the stranger is wrong: her mother was no painter and never went to Mexico. Marriage and motherhood, art and self-expression, and inherited trauma run through the story.
Barack Obama picked it as one of his favorite books of summer 2025, describing a short, lovely novella about a daughter and her mother's past.
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This book has 1 recommendation
Barack Obama (Former USA President)
A short, beautiful novella about a woman’s discovery of her mother’s secret past.
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