All Those Tears We Can't See - Gita Audhya

All Those Tears We Can’t See addresses a lot of topics—immigration, opportunity, spirituality, myth, wisdom, class, customs, poverty, corruption and physical assault in India. It is a story of India and the USA.

We can see clearly the differences between beliefs and way of life in each country and can begin to understand the challenges immigrants face in this era. It was difficult and traumatic for Samantha (The immigrant in my book) to leave everything behind and start a new life where the language, culture, traditions, morals, beliefs and everyday way of life are totally foreign and then assimilate into a new country while still retaining her own culture and beliefs.

The story follows Samantha (or Shimonti as she was known as a child) as she races to her native India, now modern, in search of her daughter, Monica.  Their fragile relationship of late has finally been shattered over interracial marriage, because Samantha fears that it will end her Bengali culture. Samantha revisits her past and re-examines her life growing up in India and then immigrating to the United States where Life was extremely hard at first, but was later fulfilled by achieving the American dream.  Her daughter Monica, now a journalist, was all-American in heart, but she was partially wrong. Monica was fascinated by Indian people and their spirituality. Later she faced physical assault in India and Samantha seeks justice for her daughter. The silver lining in this book is when Samantha thought she should embrace and accept Brandon as her son-in-law, who was Christian, realizing her daughter’s happiness should come first, before her own happiness, but would she? The messages brought forth about the beauty of love and the evil of rape came across through the pages in my book.