Book Review: A Love Story For My Sister

Book: A Love Story For My Sister
Author: Jaishree Misra
Publisher: Harper Collins
Pages: 352
Price: Rs 277
Life is never perfect. Guess it isn't supposed to be. There are times when you feel stifled in the role you are playing and you wish you could simply remove yourself from this role right now and transport yourself to something entirely different. However, the rather scary part of this whole situation is that wishes do come true!
What if Nirbhaya in her teen boiling rage had someday wished never to come back home again? Jaishree Misra's A Love Story For My Sister lurks in the same setting, sending shrills down your spine at the possibility of how life can change in a matter of seconds, without giving you any warning.

The book is the narrative of an aspiring young novelist named Pia Fernandez who is trying to connect two stories, that of 18-year-old Margaret Wheeler who was kidnapped during the uprising in the year 1857 to the kidnapping and eventual murder of her sister Tara Fernandez in 1997. Both the events took place 140 years apart, sporting strange similarities. They both were kidnapped in their18th year and fell in love with their captors. The book talks briefly about the Stockholm Syndrome, a condition where hostages express sympathy and empathy towards their captors, sometimes reaching a point where they want to defend them.
The book is told from 3 perspectives - that of Pia, Margaret Wheeler and Tara, all three contributing to a bold narrative. The author moves effortlessly between the 1857 uprising in Cawnpore to the year Tara was kidnapped and to present where Pia is trying to weave together information she is able to retrieve about Margaret Wheeler in today's Kanpur. And it is worthy to mention that if not for Pia's side of the story, this book could have been a rather heavy and depressing read, especially in today's time when we fear getting molested and groped more than ever!
The novel makes you flinch in places when Margaret Wheeler's father General Wheeler is killed barbarically in then Cawnpore, when Tara is brutally raped by one of her captors in the backside of a van or when Tara willingly follows her 'good captor' who is taking her further away from her Delhi home in the hope of salvaging her from the evil one. The story takes a rather upsetting turn when Margaret decides to marry her 'good captor' and writes in her narration that she will be a social outcast if she decides to return home now, after being held captive for so many days. She wanted to run away from being seen as a victim. Jaishree said in one of her interviews that the decision made by Margaret to marry her captor Nizam is not very different from how women of today silently bear domestic violence or even rape and choose not to speak about it.
You as a reader don't approve of Tara falling for her captor who hails from Nepal; this brings forth the psychology of a modern day teenager who would rather sell sweaters to make a living and reside in a small barsaati in the hills than give her board exams. Did she have different sensibilities or modern day pressures can push a teenager to that limit? The real twist of the story resides in the last two pages, which will make you sit up and re-read the whole book again. All in all, the book is a smooth read that leaves you with lingering thoughts...