The Immigrant Wife by Madhu B Wangu {Book Review}

Disclosure: I received an ebook copy in exchange for my honest review.

[show-book title=”The Immigrant Wife”]

“Beautiful and lush, The Immigrant Wife takes the reader on one woman’s touching, turmeric-drenched journey from naive but determined art student in India to longing-filled American wife and mother. The author Madhu B. Wangu has written a maharaja’s banquet for the senses.” – (RITA Award Winning Author) Gwyn Cready

“A winner. The Immigrant Wife: A Spiritual Journey is beautifully written. The weaves many small strands into an intriguing tapestry, much like the paintings of our heroine, Shanti. It paints two pictures one of the beautiful valley of Kashmir and the beautiful hills of Western Pennsylvania. Shanti’s quiet determination to stay true to herself, her art, and her family is inspirational. I loved it! – Professor Laurence Glasco (University of Pittsburgh)

“In her debut novel, Madhu Bazaz Wangu, conjures a mysterious time and place. The protagonist, Shanti, begins her life as an idealistic but naive girl from the valley of Kashmir. As the story unfolds in America, she learns to heed her desires and shape her life, no longer rolling along like a stone turned in the tide. Wangu creates rich, dynamic images of India, comparable to her watercolors, evoking every sense. The indigenous sights, sounds, and smells are so vivid that I swear I could find my way to Shanti’s home. Wangu’s style is gentle and quiet like the protagonist, and deeply powerful. This tale of love and nurturing, loss and growth, and transformation will stay with readers long after they finish the novel.”  – Kathleen Shoop (IPPY Award Winner of The Last Letter)

Read an excerpt HERE

First things first – this book is long. Incredibly long. Do not plan to sit down and read this quickly. It won’t happen and you won’t want it to anyway. Take your time, savor it, read it, enjoy it – enjoy the long read.

I loved reading The Immigrant Wife. I loved being in Shanti’s family and growing up with her – all the love, the loss, the emotions. She was so independent and so headstrong. She was talented and she knew what she wanted – no one, even her father, could get in her way.

We grew up with her through her school years and into college. We met her friends and we watch her fall in love, out of love, and into love again.

The book evoked several emotions at certain points. There was a point that I was angry and let down and disappointed in Shanti as a wife and mother. At the same time, I understand that the culture is different, but I felt that Shanti was Shanti. She was her own personal regardless of culture and she let that go. Fortunately, the last part of the book allowed her to find herself.

I truly enjoyed living “with” Shanti and her life. I shared her emotions. I felt happy, anger, determinations, loss, love – it’s all there. And I loved living in India and the different life and experiences.

This truly is a great read that I highly recommend.

About the author
An author, artist and the founder of the Mindful Writers Group, Madhu Bazaz Wangu was a professor of arts and religions of India before becoming a full time writer. She has a doctorate in the Phenomenology of Religions from the University of Pittsburgh and a post-doctoral fellowship from the Harvard University. For twenty-five years, she taught at the University of Pittsburgh and Chatham College in Pennsylvania, Wellesley and Wheaton Colleges in Massachusetts, and Rhode Island College.

In 1997, Dr. Wangu voyaged around the world with students & faculty from various American Universities for the Semester At Sea. In 2010, she founded the Mindful Writers Group. She encourages writers of all levels and genres to delve deeper in their work by body-mind-heart meditations. Her CD, Meditations for Mindful Writers was released in 2011. She guides writers in meditation and writing marathons. Each year in September, the Mindful Writers Group organizes a weekend of Meditation and Writing.

Madhu B. Wangu has published numerous essays and four books on Hindu & Buddhist art and religions. She has also held five one-person art exhibitions in India and US.  Her debut fiction, Chance Meetings: Stories About Cross-Cultural Karmic Collisions and Compassion was published in April, 2015. And her debut novel, An Immigrant Wife has just been released. Currently she is writing her second novel, The Last Suttee. In addition to leading the weekly Mindful Writers Group.

She lives in Wexford, Pennsylvania, USA with her husband Manoj. They have two daughters — an avionics engineer and a pediatrician — and are blessed with two grandchildren.

Find the author on the following sites…
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