This inspiring novel by Mathangi Subramanian is about women, girls who are on the cusp of being women. They live in a muddy, wet, damp slum called Heaven. The group are in constant fear of the bulldozers who come to level their slum to build more chrome and glass building which is becoming the so-called modern miracle of Bangalore, India

Most of the mothers are without husbands, and the girls take care of themselves and their mothers.
The story centers around five scrappy heroines who love life and will fight for what they can get to survive. They mostly love their mothers (there is one father who has stayed with the family and drives a rickshaw).

Without anyone, the girls' lives would be utterly hopeless, but they have a patron who is the headmistress of their school. Jan'aki Maam recognizes intelligence and goodness and works to help these girls move toward higher education and a reasonably better life. This book was both sad and celebratory as I read how women can lift themselves to approach their dreams.

I received an advance copy of this novel from the publisher and NetGalley. Thank you.

This book made me want to be young again. Its the story of young idealistic people fighting against the rich high-rise apartment builders to retain their 30 year old slum that they call home. It's all about the fight for right.

In “A People’s History of Heaven” we learn about life in an Indian slum through the individual stories of the girls and their female kin who live there. There were many parts in this book where I wanted to celebrate the triumphs of the girls as they found ways to prioritize their educations and express themselves in art and friendship. I did have some difficulty with the narrative structure of the book- it felt a bit disjointed and that made it hard for me to connect to the stories completely. Thank you to Algonquin and Net Galley for providing me with a free e-copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.,

This is an important story that shares the lives primarily of 5 girls who live in a slum in India and all that their lives entail. This story is beautifully written and important.

Ambitious and intriguing, with a wide cast of well-received characters and a vivid sense of time and place.

First of all, thanks to NetGalley and Carla from Algonquin Books for sending me ad eARC in exchange for a honest review.
You have to know English isn’t my first language, so feel free to correct me if I make some mistakes while writing this review.


Real rating: 3,5 stars.

We’re in Bangalore, India. Decades ago it was called "the market" or "the town" but then globalization and technology came, followed by the western mentality based on money and expansion and now Bangalore is something that eats itself and its poor inhabitants in the name of business and profits.

Heaven is the slum where "A People's History of Heaven" unfold.
Although there's a male presence - husbands, fathers, brothers, cousins, uncles - in Heaven, Heaven is mostly inhabited by women: women whose husbands died, women abandoned by their husbands for younger wives or because they "failed" in producing a male child.

And their lives - their histories - are now at risk for the second time, since the city decided to demolish Heaven to build a shop mall. They obviously don't take it well, so they form a human chain to protest and to defend the slum from the bulldozers.


The narrative style is something unusual, something I don't see often: the first plural person. And I like it.

It reminded me somehow of "The Virgin Suicides" by Jeffrey Eugenides with its storytelling, but it's different at the same time. Even if we learnt a few names inside "The Virgin Suicides", there was nothing else to distinguish the boys or their lives - so the voice stayed a collective one. Also, the point was another: their morbid obsession about the Lisbon sisters.

Here, instead, the first plural person serves as a "glue" for these lives - lives that literally depend on each other. This voice makes them a solid and close-knit group, it makes them stand together in the face of everything thrown at them. Still, this voice fades when it comes to tell us about these girls and these women in a third singular person - giving them their own voice, their history and their identity.

We met a group of teenage girls: Banu, Rukshana, Deepa, Joy, Padma.
They're different under many aspects: aspirations, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity. Still, they unconditionally love each other.

We met their mothers, we met Banu's grandmother, we met a girl from another slum, we met their headmistress at school - a woman determined to give a future to her students.

It's a story about how it's difficult to be a female in India, among a society where male children are favorite because girls have to obey to their mothers first and then to their husbands with marriage - a marriage where they often can't say their opinion about. Because girls can't always complete their studies based on the opinion that it's such a waste of money - money that are preferably spent on male children.

It's a story about poor people living in a slum, people the city doesn't care about - something to push away to create space for progress and money. It's about how they have to fight for water, food and a roof above their heads while rich people treat them like they're nothing but an inconvenience.

And this is "A People's History of Heaven": a fight story.
Because it's true these women fight for surivival, but they also fight for a better future - a future where they can be winners despite their caste, religion and gender identity.


Was there something I didn't like? Yes, there was.

I liked the style, but I had a problem with time jumps - when the "us" fades to tell a specific episode these girls wants us to know about. The chronological order wasn't always clear - I thought the girls were all together when they told about the new girl in their class, then it's said it was Padma.

I feel like the book lacks a sort of... background.
I have a different culture since I'm Italian and even if I have a vague knowledge of the caste concept from my religion classes in school, for someone who ignores it and doesn't know why the skin color is so important it's not clear why there are so many references to that.

This leads me to Joy's mother, a women sometimes avoided by others - I didn't know why she was labeled as "Dalit", I didn't know what it meant so I had to search it on my own.

I can say the same about the languages: Kannada, Hindu, Telugu...
What are the differences? Are they official languages, are those local dialects instead? Why the girls speak one and someone else in Heaven speak another?
For someone who knows that culture is implicit knowledge, but if I want to talk about Italian and all its dialects that change based on the region and the town you live to someone who has no idea what I'm talking about, then I also have to explain the difference - I can't simply throw names around.

A little background on those subjects for those not knowing that culture wouldn't have hurt.


Still, I liked the book and it delivers a beautiful message about female support, inner strenght and courage - and if you have unconditional love and support from those around you, even a slum under the right light can be home and a little piece of heaven.

Heaven is a place where women support each other, despite their differences. Religion, education, sexual preference, disability do not separate them from their bigger goal--saving their slum village from destruction. This is story reveals the beauty of everyday kindnesses in a place the larger world overlooks. These women will stay with you long after the last page is turned.

This book had too many characters, was not entirely engaging and underdeveloped. Really wanted to love it!

I received an ARC of this novel from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Good characterization and story line about a desperately poor community.

I really enjoyed this book. While the description makes it sound like there's too much going on, in reality Mathangi Subramanian handled it all very well. It almost reads like a collection of linked short stories as each girl's separate journey is explored and then woven into the current narrative. It's an excellent debut full of optimism and joy that will bring delight to readers.