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highly recommended |
Loved it right up until the last 10 pages 
This is the first book by Thrity Umrigar and it took me a few tries to really get into it. I once I did, I could not put it down. I really loved the characters and the way that the author writes. I was excited to see how the book turned out, I was some what disappointed at the ending, asking myself "that's it?" I still recommend it, as it was an enjoyable read regardless
A Touching Story 
Umrigar's writing is extremely vivid and captivating that as a reader you feel as though you are in the story. Sometimes I found myself forgetting that I was actually reading. The story is very touching and realistic, revealing the horrors of class disparity. I high recommend this book!
A story of universal themes
Author Thrity Umrigar deals with many universal themes in her novel THE SPACE BETWEN. Although the story is set in contemporary India, it could realistically be set in many venues where the have's and the have not's exist in the employer/employee relationship. These characters and events could easily be transferrred to the American South for all of the 18th and 19th century and much of the 20th century with the mistress being a white woman and the servant being black.
As other reviewers have wisely done, I will withhold details of the story. To expose major elements of the plot would ruin the novel for prospective readers. (I wish that there was a "spoiler's corner" where people who have read the novel could discuss aspects of the story) However, Umrigar has magnificently dealt with numerous women's issues; the degradation and abuse of women, both rich and poor while also writing an engaging tale of fate and loss; tragedy; poverty; and the fate of those who lack an education. There is also a lot of the inhumanity of one person to another.
There are few redeeming male characters in the book and the "have's" live in a whole totally separate and apart from the "have not's". The book demonstsrates the strong influence of religion and tradition and how it takes generations for some aspects of society to change and finally forget engrained prejudices.
But through it all there is the ever forgiving Bhima. Her tragic characters is the central theme of the story. One wonders if she had been born in the same situation as her mistress Sera, would things have been different.
My New Favorite Novelist
After reading this book, I was hungry for more Umrigar; she's an amazing storyteller! This novel was a compelling read. I've recommended it to friends and family who now concur that it's a great book. I loved the relationship between Bhima and Sera, and my heart broke for Bhima as she tried tirelessly to help her pregnant granddaughter Maya. An overall great read!
Mumbai
This was the first book I read by Thrity Umrigar. Although I have been there on multiple occasions, it gave me insight into the life in Mumbai. It is a very easy and quick read. There are two more books by this author that I have read and enjoyed each one.
reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10
Each morning, Bhima, a domestic servant in contemporary Bombay, leaves her own small shanty in the slums to tend to another woman's house. In Sera Dubash's home, Bhima scrubs the floors of a house in which she remains an outsider. She cleans furniture she is not permitted to sit on. She washes glasses from which she is not allowed to drink. Yet despite being separated from each other by blood and class, she and Sera find themselves bound by gender and shared life experiences. Sera is an upper-middle-class Parsi housewife whose opulent surroundings hide the shame and disappointment of her abusive marriage. A widow, she devotes herself to her family, spending much of her time caring for her pregnant daughter, Dinaz, a kindhearted, educated professional, and her charming and successful son-in-law, Viraf. Bhima, a stoic illiterate hardened by a life of despair and loss, has worked in the Dubash household for more than twenty years. Cursed by fate, she sacrifices all for her beautiful, headstrong granddaughter, Maya, a university student whose education -- paid for by Sera -- will enable them to escape the slums. But when an unwed Maya becomes pregnant by a man whose identity she refuses to reveal, Bhima's dreams of a better life for her granddaughter, as well as for herself, may be shattered forever. Poignant and compelling, evocative and unforgettable, The Space Between Us is an intimate portrait of a distant yet familiar world. Set in modern-day India and witnessed through two compelling and achingly real women, the novel shows how the lives of the rich and the poor are intrinsically connected yet vastly removed from each other, and vividly captures how the bonds of womanhood are pitted against the divisions of class and culture.
space between, between, space
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based on 89 reviews
