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Summary
Summary
"The language [takes] on a musicality that is in sharp contrast to the bleak setting . . . refreshing . . . a strong debut."
--New York Times Book Review
"Subramanian writes with empathy and exuberance, offering a much-needed glimpse into a world that too many of us don't even know exists. This is a book to give your little sister, your mother, your best friend, yourself, so together you can celebrate the strength of women and girls, the tenacity it takes to survive in a world that would rather have you disappear."
-- Nylon
In the tight-knit community known as Heaven, a ramshackle slum hidden between luxury high-rises in Bangalore, India, five girls on the cusp of womanhood forge an unbreakable bond. Muslim, Christian, and Hindu; queer and straight; they are full of life, and they love and accept one another unconditionally. Whatever they have, they share. Marginalized women, they are determined to transcend their surroundings.When the local government threatens to demolish their tin shacks in order to build a shopping mall, the girls and their mothers refuse to be erased. Together they wage war on the bulldozers sent to bury their homes, and, ultimately, on the city that wishes that families like them would remain hidden forever.
Elegant, poetic, and vibrant, A People's History of Heaven takes a clear-eyed look at adversity and geography--and dazzles in its depiction of these women's fierceness and determination not just to survive, but to triumph.
Author Notes
Mathangi Subramanian, an award-winning writer, author, and educator, is a native of Minnesota and now lives with her husband and daughter in New Delhi, India. Before becoming a published author, she worked at Sesame Workshop, where she contributed to productions of localized versions of Sesame Street for markets in Asia and Africa. In India she was a founding member of the UNESCO Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Education for Peace. She is the author of three books for young readers; this is her first adult novel.
Reviews (4)
Publisher's Weekly Review
In Subramanian's strong debut, five teenage girls come of age in a Bangalore slum and work alongside their mothers to thwart city officials' efforts to destroy their homes. Initially narrated by an unspecified member of the group of friends, the novel begins in first person plural and moves into third person to tell the stories of Rukshana, Joy, Deepa, Banu, and Padma-five girls who have been friends since childhood in fictional Swargahalli, Bangalore. In a culture that prizes male heirs, the girls have little opportunity and face abuse, blindness, poverty, and questions about gender and sexual identity; these issues are compounded as the girls grow up without the guarantee of an education. Making matters worse, the government has ramped up efforts to tear down Heaven, the girls' neighborhood, in order to build a shopping complex. As the project moves forward, the girls take on adult responsibilities and must learn hard truths as they help their mothers stop the building plans. Jumping around in time, the book looks in at pivotal moments in their lives, including their infancy, when their mothers banded together to keep the children healthy, and their adolescence, with dances, temporary teachers, and the rapid evolution of "a bunch of blue tarps strung up into haphazard tents" into an urbanized commercial area. Subramanian's evocative novel weaves together a diverse, dynamic group of girls to create a vibrant tapestry of a community on the brink. (Mar.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Kirkus Review
A group of Bangalore schoolgirls attempts to save their "slum" from demolition.Heaven is a place on Earthmore specifically, it's a slum in Bangalore, India, so named for a broken sign that spells out the Sanskrit word for heaven. For five government-school pupils, it's the closest thing to heaven they've got, so when their homes are slated for demo, they spring into action. As the narrator (a first-person plural voice that encompasses the quintet) notes, "If you need something done, you ask us girls." "Us girls" are Banu, an artist and handywoman whose grandmother holds a position of prominence as one of the original residents of Heaven; Deepa, whose impaired sight leads her parents to keep her out of school; Joy, who is transgender and an exceptional student; Padma, who came to Heaven from a rural village and whose complex family dynamics put extra pressure on her; and Rukshana, who is coming to terms with her queer sexuality and her status as a Muslim. Though the plot is nominally about the fight to save Heaven, Subramanian (Dear Mrs. Naidu, 2015, etc.) is more interested in episodically filling in the backstories of the five girls and their mothers, in the process tackling some of the most trenchant issues facing Indian women in particularcasteism, arranged marriage, forced sterilizationas well as women all over the world. This is Subramanian's first novel for adults, although it isn't fully clear why it isn't YA. It has the heart-on-its-sleeve melodrama of some of the most successful teen novels and films, though it will likely also appeal to adults wanting to tuck in to a novel which is like the brainy big sister of a Lifetime movie.A girl power-fueled story that examines some dark social issues with a light, occasionally saccharine, touch. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
Award-winning author Subramanian's (Dear Mrs. Naidu, 2015) first book for adults tells the story of five teenage best friends from Heaven, a slum hidden between luxury high-rises in Bangalore, India. The girls, of various religious backgrounds and sexual identities, live with their single mothers strong, independent women who were rejected by their husbands for not bearing male heirs. Together with the rest of their marginalized community, the girls and their mothers come together to fight against the city's bulldozers that threaten to erase their neighborhood in order to build a shopping mall. Their fight is not only to save the homes that they love but also to stand up for their rights as human beings. The power of these fierce young women shines in spite of their circumstances, and they prove just how beautiful and influential a strong, unconditionally accepting community is. Subramanian is a remarkable writer whose vibrant words carry a lot of heart. This inspiring novel is sure to draw in readers with its lyrical prose and endearing characters.--Emily Park Copyright 2010 Booklist
New York Review of Books Review
MATHAN GI SUBRAMANIAN'S NOVEL, "A People's History of Heaven," follows the lives of five girls and close friends as they fight to save their slum on the outskirts of Bangalore from demolition. The slum is called Swarga, Sanskrit for heaven. Heaven, we are told, "is nothing if not a series of crises. Men lurching home after midnight, collars and shirtsleeves blotted with blood. Women rushing to the police station to post bail for a son wrongfully incarcerated, a husband rightfully restrained. Children stumbling out of tinroofed huts where their mother has died giving birth, cradling babies swaddled in torn up saris, blinking their newly orphaned eyes." It starts a little heavy-handed, as city officials are "demolishing Heaven" with bulldozers. But as the book progresses, the metaphors calm down and Subramanian finds her footing, the language taking on a musicality that is in sharp contrast to the bleak setting. A nameless narrating chorus weaves in and out of the stories of not just the girls but the mothers and women who came before them. At times this "we" detracts from the specificities of the central characters, but it works, because this is a story of a generation, a class, a community, a gender, a world. In Heaven, the girls' fates are as tightly intertwined as their braids. Parts of this novel read like independent vignettes, almost poetry. This is a "history" as much of a place and a time as of a people. A plot about underprivileged girls in India runs the risk of sounding morally selfimportant or, worse, voyeuristic, particularly when written in English. These plots are almost always told from the safe haven of privilege, and carry the burdens of having to be earnest yet careful, and to demonstrate a sympathy that too often blurs into pity. At first it feels as though we've read this tale before: one in which girls are hated from the minute they're conceived, women are valued only for their wombs, men are drunk and philandering, sadness piled on top of depression sitting atop cruelty. But then Subramanian surprises us. Moments of genuine joy (though I wish a character didn't actually have to be named Joy) burst through. The women are not there for our pity; they are there to be listened to, even when they speak softly. The story moves from all that is done to the girls to all that the girls do. One is transgender, one navigates her blindness, one discovers a family secret, another an unexpected sexuality, one might just be a future Banksy. The men and their cruelties fade into the peripheries. How simple, how refreshing. A few elements are glossed over too lightly, as if perhaps Subramanian is afraid of the current or future sociopolitical climate in India. Despite the group's interreligiosity (including a converted Christian and a Muslim among the Hindu majority, which varies in devoutness), Subramanian avoids exploring the real-life ascendancy of the Hindu right in any detail. The Hindu boys taking on the saffron-colored clothes and slogans of the nationalist extremists seem to play no role, let alone cause any tension, in the lives of this mixed community. One can hope that is how things will play out in the India outside this novel: Maybe the flexing of religion as power will remain an adolescent attempt at finding a sense of belonging, and will no longer actually tear the country or the world apart. Maybe what Subramanian is trying to give us is a sense of optimism. Because by the end, the book gives us more hope than gloom. The girls find things they're looking for, be it a home or love or something less concrete. And, most important, they hold on to one another. Despite its uplifting-enough ending, though, "A People's History of Heaven" feels scattered, new characters being introduced here and there to help tie up loose threads. It is as if the author herself were unsure how to give these girls a sense of resolution after setting them up with lives so full of sadness and misfortune. Or as if she'd been planning to write a collection of poetry, but decided to write a novel instead. But like her, we too want these characters to find happy endings, so we'll take it. This is a strong debut by Subramanian. In the future, she might trust her readers a bit more, and allow herself the freedom to reveal a world of her creation in which not everything needs to represent something else. This is a story of a generation, a class, a community, a gender, a world. DIKSHA BASU is the author of "The Windfall."