Review: The Aunt Who Wouldn't Die

The Aunt Who Wouldn't Die by Shirshendu Mukhopadhyay
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

How do you review a book when you have no idea what was going on?

Somlata is a young lower caste girl married into the upper class but destitute Mitras family. the family are so dissolute they don't even consider the possibility of getting a job. Somlata is also terrorised by Pishima, an elderly bitter widow. When Pishima dies suddenly her ghost urges Somlata to hide her jewellery, jewellery that the rest of the family covets. From then on Somlata is haunted by Pishima's ghost which seems to wish ill on the family but perversely it seems to empower Somlata to galvanise her husband into opening a shop.

I liked the write no style, very different to that in a western novella but I have to say I failed to understand the point of the novella, for that reason I split my rating between four for the writing and two for the plot.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in return for an honest review.

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