The World We Found by Thrity Umrigar: book review

The World We Found: A Novel (2012) is set in Bombay (Mumbai) in the 1970s and in the present day (30 years later).

In the 1970s, during their four years at college, four girls have a strong friendship. Armaiti, Laleh, Kavita, and Nishta – and Laleh’s boyfriend Adish, and Nishta’s boyfriend Iqbal – are all young, rebellious, and free. After college, they lead their own separate lives.

Thirty years later, Armaiti is living in America, divorced from her husband, Richard, five years ago, with her daughter Diane. Nearly 50, Armaiti has been diagnosed with a tumor. She doesn’t want to undergo treatment. Her doctor says she has about six months left. Richard returns to help her through her illness. Armaiti’s final wish is to see her three girlfriends again.

Laleh is married to Adish, a wealthy businessman, with two children, Ferzin and Farhad. Nishta is married to Iqbal. Iqbal, who once wore ‘bright floral shirts over tight jeans’ is now an Imam and works in an electrical shop. Kavita, a well-known architect, is unmarried, looking after her mother, with a friend and work colleague, Ingrid, whom she has known for 15 years.

Laleh feels responsible for Armaiti’s illness, believing it resulted from an incident during a protest rally in the 1970s. Each of them have different recollections about their college days and their political and social interests.

In Bombay, Laleh and Kavita quickly reunite to accept Armaiti’s proposal to visit her in America. They must find Nishta so that they can travel together as ‘Armaiti’s gift’ before time runs out. They enlist Adish’s help and the assistance of Iqbal’s sister, Mumtaz.

The airport scene is gripping. It is where ‘the world slowed down, became a movie shot in slow motion … Sound, too, seemed to have become muffled, long-drawn, distorted, a record playing at the wrong speed …’

This is a story about resilient friendships amongst women, solidarity in adversity, the men’s relationship with each other after years apart, internal relationships between partners, interfaith marriages, and family bonds and loyalties. All have their secrets and all have feelings for each other. All have changed over time, some more than others.

MARTINA NICOLLS is the author of:- The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).

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