The Weight of Heaven

(Paperback)

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When Frank and Ellie Benton lose their only child, seven-year-old Benny, to a sudden illness, the perfect life they had built is shattered. Filled with wrenching memories, their Ann Arbor home becomes unbearable, and their marriage founders. Then an unexpected job half a world away in Girbaug, India, offers them an opportunity to start again. But Frank's befriending of Ramesha bright, curious boy who quickly becomes the focus of his attentionswill lead the grieving man down an ever-darkening path with stark repercussions.

A devastating look at cultural clashes and divides, Thrity Umrigar's The Weight of Heaven is a rare glimpse of a family and a country struggling under pressures beyond their control.

Reviews

"Umrigar is a perceptive and often piercing writer." -- New York Times Book Review

"Powerful. . . . Twisty, brimming with dark humor and keen moral insight, THE WEIGHT OF HEAVEN packs a wallop on both a literary and emotional level. . . . Umrigar is a master of delineating the ethical lines Frank and Ellie cross, with, at least at first, the best of intentions. . . . Umrigar, a journalist for the Boston Globe, is a descriptive master." -- Christian Science Monitor

"Umrigar carries a burden as heavy as the title by using a tale of personal tragedy to depict the balance of power in global economics. . . . Her observations are dispassionate and astute enough to deliver at both levels. This is a morality tale tuned to our times." -- Cleveland Plain Dealer

"Rich prose and vibrant descriptions of India. . . . THE WEIGHT OF HEAVEN is a bold, beautifully rendered tale of cultures that clash and coalesce." -- Booklist (starred review)

"The landscape and culture . . . [are] evocatively depicted. . . . And such drama! . . . We're pulled along by the intensity of this sweepingly cinematic story." -- Elle

"Umrigar beautifully illuminates how human relationships are complicated by cultural, geographical, and class divides." -- More Magazine

"Well paced. . . . An unflinching portrait of parental bereavement." -- Kirkus Reviews

"Umrigar . . . finely plumbs the depths of the human heart, from the heights of joy and passion to the very deepest despair. Recommended for all fiction collections." -- Library Journal

"Umrigar renders a collection of compelling and complex characters, from kind, conflicted Sera to fiercely devoted Bhima. Sadness suffuses this eloquent tale, whose heart-stopping plot twists reveal the ferocity of fate." -- Booklist (starred review)

Author Bio

Thrity Umrigar is the author of seven novels - Everybody's Son, The Story Hour, The World We Found, The Weight of Heaven, The Space Between Us, If Today Be Sweet, and Bombay Time- and the memoir First Darling of the Morning. A journalist for almost twenty years, she is the winner of the Nieman Fellowship to Harvard and 2006 finalist for the PEN/Beyond Margins Award. An associate professor of English at Case Western Reserve University, Umrigar lives in Cleveland.