Book review: Surosree Das spins a tale around single motherhood in The Paused Waves

The writing, setting and the story-line is beautiful. The characters are intriguing. The best part is where Aaheli finds out all the secrets about her grandmother and decides to fulfill her last wish. It is a story that holds your attention and make you want more.

The Paused Waves is a story woven around a family secret. The story is about “Madhabi Bose”, narrator’s friend Aaheli’s grandma.

The narrator used to stay at her friend Aaheli’s house in her college days. Whenever Aaheli used to ask her father anything about her grandparents, he used to get embarrassed and never answered her. Then one day while spring-cleaning, they found a journal of Madhabi Bose.

The unraveling of the secrets makes it a good book.

What one would surely like about this book is how beautifully the present and past stories are told.

The writing is detailed and vivid. The author did a wonderful job by layering the different lives together and connecting their personal relationships to one another by creating  a sense of healing through the hurt and the pain that took place in Aaheli’s life.

There is  a lot of depth, heart and human exploration in this book. This creation is a tribute to all single mothers who face hardships all alone without any support from society and finally come out as a strong Independent woman.

The author focused on the individuality of a single mother, which has always existed in our society but which we neither accepted nor valued.

(Reviewed by Poonam Chatterjee)