Saborna Roychowdhury explores the irresolvable complexities of human connections in her novel EVERYTHING HERE BELONGS TO YOU, which follows a pair of young women as they come of age in 1990s India. As a child, Parul is taken in by Mohini’s wealthy Hindu family to work as a servant. The two girls could not come from more different worlds: Parul is the daughter of a desperately poor Muslim family, while Mohini has lived a life of affluence and privilege. As they grow up, Parul and Mohini become close, but Parul’s Muslim identity and low social status are barriers they cannot fully overcome; Mohini struggles to define her relationship with Parul—is she a sister or a servant?—while Parul, who is ostracized and bullied by the Hindu community, becomes increasingly embittered and resentful. When Parul meets a young man, Rahim, a devout Muslim and political militant, their relationship ignites long-simmering conflicts within the family.

Roychowdhury, a Pushcart Prize nominee, is a masterful storyteller and a keen observer of character, culture, and politics, whose story moves from the fairytale-like simplicity of childhood to the thorny complications of the adult world with grace and authenticity. Roychowdhury’s vividly rendered world of Calcutta feels entirely, vibrantly alive, though the ominous undertone of dark portents—”the god of death”—lurks behind even the novel’s lighter moments. Elements of the plot that are typical fodder for melodrama, such as Parul’s illicit romance or Mohini’s friendship with a young American man who comes to stay with the family, are treated seriously and with emotional realism. And Roychowdhury navigates the novel’s myriad political and personal conflicts with sensitivity and remarkable depth of insight.

EVERYTHING HERE BELONGS TO YOU succeeds beautifully at telling an intimate and deeply felt story of a troubled connection between two young women, set against a larger narrative of ideological conflict. Earnest but never heavy-handed, compassionate but unsentimental, the novel is an immersive and compulsively readable journey that will leave readers profoundly moved.

~Edward Sung for IndieReader