Description

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. But an unexpected job half a world away offers them an opportunity to start again. Life in Girbaug, India, holds promise—and peril—when Frank befriends Ramesh, a bright, curious boy who quickly becomes the focus of the grieving man's attentions. Haunted by memories of his dead son, Frank is consumed with making his family right—a quest that will lead him down an ever-darkening path with stark repercussions.

Filled with satisfyingly real characters and glowing with local color, The Weight of Heaven is a rare glimpse of a family and a country struggling under pressures beyond their control. In a devastating look at cultural clashes and divides, Umrigar illuminates how slowly we recover from unforgettable loss, how easily good intentions can turn evil, and how far a person will go to build a new world for those he loves.

About the Author

Thrity Umrigar, a journalist and associate professor of English at Case Western Reserve University, is the author of three previous novels, If Today Be Sweet, The Space Between Us, and Bombay Time, and a memoir, First Darling of the Morning. She lives in Cleveland.

Praise for The Weight of Heaven…

“Umrigar beautifully illuminates how human relationships are complicated by cultural, geographical, and class divides.”
-More Magazine