It wasn’t until I was done writing Honor that I realized that I wrote the novel, at least in part, to answer a comment made by a reader of my previous novel, The Secrets Between Us.
I had just finished a book talk at a luncheon at a country club when an elderly woman raised her hand with a question. Why, she wanted to know, was India such a terrible place? Why were people so cruel to one another?
The question stopped me in my tracks. Because, although I often write about difficult things in difficult places, it had never occurred to me that a reader would condemn an entire country based on the characters in one novel. After all, how could any novel represent the realities of a country of a billion people? It was as if we were to judge the entirety of the American experience by the fact that our gun laws allow for the mass murder of children in schools.
My hope for my books has always been the opposite—that reading about bigotries or prejudices elsewhere would lead my readers to question their own prejudices and cultural assumptions. That my stories would act as ambassadors of connection, not condemnation.
Looking back, I see now what I did with Smita’s character. Her love-hate relationship with India—her deep sorrow for Meena and her fate, her revulsion at the country’s treatment of women, her own deep understanding of its religious bigotries—battles with her growing awareness of what the country has to offer by way of acts of grace, sacrifice and heroism. She comes to see the country as a complicated, even contradictory place where ancient hatreds exist alongside with unexpected love.
I guess this was my own way of answering my reader’s question, which had troubled me for several years. Sometimes, the subconscious is more powerful than our conscious thoughts.
For twenty years, Smita is trapped in a child’s version of India—one dimensional and the result of childhood trauma. But fate conspires to give her a second chance. As an adult, and one who has had the privilege of traveling the globe, she begins to see her home country anew, and to confront its nuance and complexity. India had once taught her how to fear; now, she has a chance to learn how to engage with and try to love this complicated place.