One Amazing Thing

A Novel
Author: Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
On the web: click here
Subject: Fiction
My rating: 5*

About the book:
I received this book as an advanced reading copy, through LT. Author was unknown to me; I have found that she did write another 15 books! This book is about the story of few people trapped by an earthquake in an Indian visa office, somewhere in the USA. At the beginning I found that the selection of the characters was a bit too obvious. Here we have the black ex-soldier, the young male Muslim, the Chinese family, the Indian staff...very different walks of life, upbringing and culture. But the story itself is enthralling, beautifully written, building up in suspense. It makes you want to pick up the book to see what else will happen. The author is doing an amazing job at letting the characters speak; her language is full of beautiful metaphors. I couldn't let this book go! It's been probably the first time a book falls into my hands (without me researching it, or selecting it on purpose) and then surpasses all my expectations. A truly amazing thing!

From the book:
'Minutes before the second rumble, Uma felt a craving to see the sun. Had the gossamer fog that draped the tops of the downtown buildings when she arrived that morning lifted by now? If so, the sky would be bright as a Niles lily; if not, it would glimmer like fish-scales. Suddenly she needed to know which it was. Later she would wonder at the urgency that had pulled her out of her chair and to her feet. Was it an instinct like the one that made zoo animals moan and whine for hours before natural disasters struck? She shouldered her bag and stepped toward the door. A few more seconds and she would have pushed it open, run down the corridor and taken the stairs up to the first floor two at a time, rushing to satisfy the desire that ballooned inside of her. She would have been outside, lifting her face to the gray drizzle that was beginning to fall, and this would have been a different story'.