The fragmentation of India is the backdrop to this rich novel detailing the lives of two women married to a wealthy Sikh landowner in Punjab. Satya, which means “Truth,” has been displaced by sixteen-year-old Roop, who must bring forth a male heir for Sardarji, a man caught between the world of his British masters and the prospect of the partition that will leave him and his heirs stateless. From the first pages, as Satya appraises the younger woman wearing her jewelry—necklace, earrings, bracelet—we find ourselves caught up in a complex weave of competing emotions and loyalties. What the body remembers are indeed the wounds inflicted by others (parents, siblings, lovers, authorities, societies) and the pleasures. This is an immensely pleasurable read.