Poignant and compelling, evocative and unforgettable, The Space Between Us is an intimate portrait of a distant yet familiar world. Set in modern-day India and witnessed through two compelling and achingly real women, the novel shows how the lives of the rich and the poor are intrinsically connected yet vastly removed from each other, and vividly captures how the bonds of womanhood are pitted against the divisions of class and culture. What a great way to start the new year with a 5 star read. The people and the streets of Mumbai come alive in this delightful and at times heartbreaking story. Thrity Umrigar emigrated to the USA from India at the age of 21 and her in depth experience of living in Mumbai is so evident in the beautiful and raw descriptions of life in this teeming city of 10+ million people.

The only problem I have with this book is that it ends. I could read about these characters until the end of the world. Jumping on to the sequel! We come to see the loyalties between people of different classes. How individuals can be convinced that they have conquered the unavoidable distances that money and station can create, and how the removal of that illusion can be an unforgiving destroyer. And how the instinct for self-preservation may be strong, but without the means to preserve oneself, all the intent in the world can mean nothing.This is a beautifully written story telling the side by side yet intertwined stories of two women from different classes in Bombay , India . It's sad , really heartbreaking at times as we come to know the stories of Sera , a wealthy woman, and her loyal servant , Bhimi , whose life in the slums is a stark contrast . Perhaps unsurprisingly, given what has been going on in the news over the past week while I have been reading this book, the most prominent theme that stood out to me is difference and how people react to it. Sandy is an alien creature and, without knowing anything about it, people have very different reactions to it. For some, it represents threat, in others in evokes compassion, friendship and a feeling of protectiveness. The difference comes down to empathy and a willingness to learn The actors Asa Butterfield (20 years old at the time of the film's release) and Britt Robertson (27 at the time) have a seven-year age gap between them, greater than their respective characters (both of whom are around 16 or 17), which caused controversy, but in an interview Robertson explains that the age difference helped with the dynamic of the relationship between Tulsa and Gardner: [10] The almost 70-year-old Bhima has been working for decades as a housemaid for Sera, who is around 10 years younger and belongs to the affluent middle class.

a b c d "A Conversation with Thrity Umrigar". Thrity Umrigar. Archived from the original on July 3, 2014 . Retrieved March 27, 2011. And yet there are throughout The Space Between moments of intense passion and sensuality between the men and woman portrayed within. Strong feeling that keeps rising up, memory at once healing, wounding, reminding. Umrigar weaves together the narrative with colloquial expressions that authenticate the dialogue and create a unique sense of place. Even though I didn’t always understand, I always got the gist.The end of the book worked out exactly as I expected. Still, I was very sad and frustrated when I closed the book.

The three of them wake up at the hospital occupying the same ward, where they are told they suffered an extremely rare form of stroke. What’s more confusing is the fact that they all fully recovered before they received any medical treatment. I also found myself making comparisons to our own country’s response to immigration. How we treat those we don’t understand; who are not from our little island. Lennox, Ava and Heather felt compassion and connection to something they didn’t know, and didn’t understand. Ultimately they saw something needing their help; so they went to help. But the motives of government agencies were very different. Maher, Kevin (February 10, 2017). "The Space Between Us". The Times. Archived from the original on March 12, 2017 . Retrieved March 8, 2017. When they arrive on Earth, Nathaniel is angry at Tom, who kept Gardner's training a secret. Gardner is quarantined at NASA while undergoing medical tests to determine his fitness for life on Earth. He escapes before seeing the tests showing he cannot live on Earth very long, and finds Tulsa convincing her to help him find his father. During that night, a creature resembling an octopus (but not exactly an octopus as it possesses five tentacles instead of eight) washes up on the beach in East Lothian.

Lennox is a troubled teenager with no family. Ava is eight months pregnant and fleeing her abusive husband. Heather is a grieving mother and cancer sufferer. They don’t know each other, but when a meteor streaks over Edinburgh, all three suffer instant, catastrophic strokes... She would notice how people’s faces turned slightly upward when they stared at the sea, as if they were straining to see a trace of God or were hearing the silent humming of the universe; she would notice how, at the beach, people’s faces became soft and wistful, reminding her of the expressions on the faces of the sweet old dogs that roamed the streets of Bombay. As if they were all sniffing the salty air for transcendence, for something that would allow them to escape the familiar prisons of their own skin.” Lennox, Ava, and Heather feel a pull towards the creature, which Lennox names Sandy. They need to get to them to help them…