Goldmine Reads - The Storytellers Secret--Summarized for Busy People: A Novel: Based on the Book by Sejal Badani

Summarized For Busy People

A Novel

Based on the Book by Sejal Badani

Goldmine Reads

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Sejal Badanis The Storytellers Secret is a tragic yet inspiring novel about two women continents and generations apart. Fifteen to twenty percent of all pregnant women suffer from miscarriage. A successful journalist named Jaya is one of them. Women who have had miscarriages usually have normal pregnancies afterwards, but not Jaya. In a span of five years, she had miscarried three consecutive times. She mourned each time, and she was repeatedly reminded that she would never have the family she had dreamed of.

Patrick, Jayas husband and an accomplished attorney, did his best to comfort her. Expressing grief was difficult for Patrick because he had to be strong for Jaya. Following the third miscarriage, the obstetrician spoke to Patrick about Jayas medical condition. Jaya, who was still under the influence of anesthesia, came to interrupt their conversation and asked how soon she would be able to try again. Patrick was still reeling from the loss of their third child, so he was shocked when Jaya seemed to have already decided on another pregnancy without considering how he felt about it. Patrick announced that he was unsure whether he wanted another try. This pained Jaya, and it showed how much they have disconnected from their relationship and each other.

A heartbroken Patrick found comfort in the arms of one of his colleagues who, unfortunately, was one of Jayas most trusted friends. The strain in their marriage grew overwhelming, so they decided to part ways. Jaya thought that their current relationship could no longer be mended when she discovered Patricks infidelity. A reluctant Patrick wanted a divorce while Jaya decided to move back into her parents home in New Yorks upscale suburbia in hopes of healing from the hurt of her devastated marriage and multiple miscarriages.

Jaya was welcomed by her loving father with whom she had shared a close bond. Her father was a renowned physician, and he had missed parts of Jayas childhood in pursuit of his career. Jaya had often been left under the care of her mother, Lena, who now was only glad that her daughter had come back. To make Jaya feel at home, Lena cooked her favorite meals. Lena had loved her only daughter deeply, but she had not been able to show the unconditional love that Jaya had longed for. Jaya felt sadness in her heart when she recalled the many times during her younger years in which she felt as if she had failed to make her mother proud. She pictured the disappointment in her mothers eyes when she had lost a spelling competition. She remembered the time during Halloween when they were supposed to wear matching outfits, but Lena had changed into a different clothing instead. Jaya was aware that her mother had wanted her to follow her fathers footsteps and become a physician. Lena barely made an effort to conceal her displeasure at Jayas chosen career. Even now, Jaya felt as if she had let her mother down because of her failed marriage and pregnancies.

Lena had been informed that her father, whom she had left in India, was dying and had wished to see her. There was something he wanted to give Lena, and he pleaded that she come home one last time. Lena has not visited her father once since she left, and Jaya had never met him. The relationship between Lena and her father was not exactly most ideal, and she has never said anything about the discord. Jaya and her father urged Lena to go, but she would not budge. She even mentioned that her father had told her before she left for America to never come back to India. Lena was confused as to how she felt about the whole ordeal, but her mind was made up: she would not visit her father in India, and she would not tell anybody why.

Stricken with grief from the loss of her husband and unborn children, Jaya thought it just as unfair to lose a grandfather she had never met. She resolved to make the trip herself. She implored Lena to come with her but to no avail. Jaya went even without her mother, but when she arrived in her grandfathers home, he had already passed away.

Jaya was greeted by Ravi, the confidant and servant of her deceased grandmother. Ravi tried his best to make Jaya feel at home inside her predecessors dwelling. Jaya was immediately enchanted by the foreign lands lavish culture, and she felt as if being there would help her get to know herself more. Finally, she was offered a refuge from her suffering in the life she had left in America.

Jaya learned from Ravi about her late grandmother Amishas pioneering spirit. She refused to bend to the social constructs enforced against her and all Indian women throughout the 30s and 40s. Amisha had been forced into an arranged marriage and soon discovered that she was to be a servant of her in-laws. Bearing three sons, she had earned her husbands respect. Amisha sought education, so she had made an unusual deal with a school run by the British and was eventually involved in an illicit affair with one of the officers from the British occupation.

Ravi revealed to Jaya that the union of Amisha and the British officer had borne a light-skinned child: Lena, who had been passed off as a full-blooded Indian. Amisha died years later, and Lena had grown up believing that the man who raised her was her father by blood.

Patrick, Jayas husband, reached out to her. He asked for Jayas forgiveness and a chance to begin again. Jaya reflected on how she had contributed to their falling apart: her extreme desire to bear a child has blinded her to her own husbands grief. Hearing the stories of her grandmothers courage through love and pain has led Jaya to find her own. She resolved to give the love of her life another chance. She and Patrick agreed to adopt a child from one of Indias orphanages and begin a new life together as family.

Amishas tale of great love and heartache moved Jaya to discover within herself the strength she did not know had been there all along.

This book summary serves as a guide to Sejal Badanis The Storytellers Secret: A Novel. No text of the actual book is included, so if you prefer, you may purchase a copy before you proceed.

This guide includes a book overview, a description of the storys setting, a plot analysis, a list of characters and an analysis of their roles, chapter summaries, and an explanation of the motifs and themes used throughout the story.

The Storytellers Secret is set in two continents and transpires over the course of seven decades. The novel opens in the summer of 2000 with Jaya, a young woman who yearned to become a mother. She and Patrick, her husband, lived in a comfortable home in Hudson, New York. Meanwhile, Jayas parents still resided in the wealthy suburbs at the edge Hudson City where Jaya had grown up.

Reeling from her third miscarriage and the discovery of her husbands infidelity, Jaya found respite in a low-income village in rural India where the food, the houses, and the traditions were a world away from that of New York. The story line switches between timelines: Jayas experiences in 2000 and the happenings in British-occupied India during the 1930s and 1940s.