Honor is a timely, intelligent, graphic and realistic look at modern-day India and the violent traditions that still govern there. Told from the perspectives of Smita and Meena, this book is an important book that should be read and discussed widely.

Smita is an American-based Indian journalist who travels to India to help a friend but ends of covering the story of Meena, whose husband was killed by her own brothers and who also suffered horrendous burns. Meena is from a Hindu family and she committed a mortal sin in their eyes by marrying a Muslim.

Meena has done the unthinkable by bringing a lawsuit against her brothers for the vicious murder and attack on her. Her lawyer is not hopeful about the outcome of the trial.

The comparisons between religious fanaticism in India and recent developments in America are very apparent and thought-provoking. It is sad and shocking how violent acts against fellow human beings can be committed, all in the name of God. Religious fundamentalism is real and represents the worst human behavior. The only "sin" committed by Meena was marrying someone outside her own religion.

‘Honor’ is a brutal and honest story but it is also a glimpse into modern-day India and its customs. I learned so much about Indian traditions from this book! The details of the setting and the interactions between the characters are incredible. If you like to read as a window to other cultures, then this book should be on your reading list. It is ultimately a hopeful and very thought-provoking story.

(Thank you the publisher Algonquin Books for providing a review copy in exchange for an honest review.)

This is definitely a review I'll come back to in the future, because there's no way I could ever fully unpack Thrity Umrigar's Honor in a single sitting. I'm speechless.

Umrigar carefully threads such a delicate story of the past, present, and future and what it means to call a flawed place home. I loved that the protagonist was someone from India who'd long renounced the country and identified as an American; it's a perspective we don't often see in literature, and the unraveling of Smita's past was poignant and complex. I'm still weighing some of the themes, narrative choices, and tonal shifts in here, and for obvious reasons, seeing as this book is about a culture and perspective different from my own, I'm choosing to leave those feelings open-ended.

And god, that ending. It gutted me in so many ways. I've been reduced to a puddle.

Content warning: Graphic violence, arson, sexual abuse, torture, child abuse sexual harassment, murder, honor killing

Honor is the story of two very different women, Smita, an Indian-American journalist, and Meena, a young woman from a rural village outside of Mumbai, whose lives converge unexpectedly after a terrible violent act is perpetrated against Meena. It's stunning, beautiful, devastating, and ultimately shows the true meaning of the word honor. There are themes of class, race, culture, religious beliefs, and family throughout the novel.

Umrigar's writing is gorgeous and descriptive, and her characters are so realistic and sympathetic. I highly recommend that you read this book!

My most recent audiobook was Honor by #ThrityUmrigar. In addition to it being a recent @reesesbookclub pick, it's a powerful exploration of tradition, honor, oppression and sacrifice, set in 2018 India. ⁣
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Honor takes on the cultural clash between Muslims and Hindus and is told through the lens of two Indian born women who have experienced the traditional and patriarchal society in very different ways. ⁣
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It is both heartbreaking and also has messages of hope - and while it isn't one that is easy to read, it is one I would easily recommend!

Thank you to Algonquin Books for my gifted review copy.

Thrity Umrigar, thank you for restoring my hope for 2022 releases with your upcoming release, HONOR.

This is a truly moving #ownvoices story that explores identity, cultural expectations, and love in a deeply human way. HONOR centers around Smita, an Indian-American journalist, and Meena, a newly widowed mother living in Mumbai. Meena finds herself in the midst of unthinkable loss when her beloved husband is murdered by her Hindu brothers because of his Muslim religion.

This quiet novel features characters who are so well-drawn. On the surface their lifestyles starkly contrast, but their hearts share the same longings. I found the cultural aspects of urban vs rural India fascinating and Smita's personal connection to India heartbreaking but hopeful.

HONOR would be an incredible book club selection. I can see thought-provoking conversations coming from this novel. This story will be one that sticks with me.

RATING: 4.5/5 (rounded up to 5)
PUB DATE: January 4, 2022

A big thank you to Algonquin Books and NetGalley for an electronic ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Enduring Love Surmounts Religious Savagery in Thrity Umrigar’s Newest Novel

Reading a novel by Thrity Umrigar is like experiencing a master class in writing and storytelling. Honor, her most powerful novel to date, is no exception, calling out marginalization of a minority and religious tribalism in India, alongside battling the concept of not being able to go home again.

The word honor in our daily lives operates as a positive one, yet here, honor also becomes a contranym, an antonym of itself, a quirk of the English language not often acknowledged.

Two stories weave together as tightly as the threads of finest satin—that of the complex Smita Agarwal and the unworldly Meena Mustafa, two women whose dissimilar lives are interrupted by tragedies which, though unrelated, ultimately bind them. In contrast, a beautiful, unyielding love story forms the backbone that offers power against misogyny.

Umrigar draws on her years as a journalist in creating Smita, an international gender issues reporter who was born in India but has lived in America since she was fourteen. Her Americanization disconnects her from the people she meets when she returns to the land of her birth to assist Shannon Carpenter, her South Asian correspondent colleague. It was a trip she never wanted to make, to return to India, where family history was left behind yet begs a response.

“… she found herself dealing with everything that she detested about this country—its treatment of women, its religious strife, its conservatism.”

However, with Shannon on medical leave, Smita agrees to take over the reporting of a story Shannon had been covering. That story is about Meena, a young mother and widow in a remote village. As a Hindu, she bravely filed a lawsuit to demand justice from her brothers and the men from her village who marched to her home and, in what they believed would reinstate their family honor, set Meena’s home on fire and killed her husband, Abdul, a Muslim. In her attempt to save Abdul, Meena, pregnant with their only child, was severely burned, leaving her disfigured and maimed.

In her skillful hands, Umrigar reminds us of similar injustices and misguided beliefs in the United States and around the world, none of which are excusable.

“How alarmingly easy it had been to get millions to participate in genocide during both the Holocaust and Partition,” Umrigar writes. “Human beings could apparently be turned into killers as effortlessly as turning a key. All one had to do was use a few buzzwords: God. Country, Religion. Honor."

When Smita accepts the follow-through on the story, Meena is awaiting her trial date and lives with her young daughter, Abru, and Abdul’s verbally abusive mother. Meena harbors hope that the trial will bring about change so her daughter won’t be stigmatized or suffer the same fate while restoring honor to her late husband.

As she gains Meena’s trust, Smita finds herself recalling the traumatic events that drove her own family from India when she was in her teens. Her third-person point-of-view allows her the distance to observe before she feels emotion and gives her the ability to come to terms with everything she has experienced in her lifetime.
As she does so, Smita’s own grief and anger are tempered by Meena’s imperishable love for her late husband. Through Smita’s opened eyes, India becomes a place to no longer fear or reject. Home.

Umrigar’s novels are timely and immersive, haunting and thought-provoking. Meena’s first-person narrative is particularly moving, and in the end, uplifting. Through Meena’s story, Umrigar illustrates religion as a weapon, one that imposes unfounded edicts, boundaries, and walls as protective armor in the fight for what it alone believes to be right.

Honor scrutinizes the tragedy of humans to allow misogyny as a rule of life and the failure to accept differences among us as much as it is about matchless love and sincere forgiveness. It is a portrait of the strength one draws on to raise herself up again.

“ABRU
It means Honor.
I named her this in memory of her father, a man who made this word bloom with every word he spoke and every deed he did.”

Do yourself a favor. Read this book.

This review appeared 27 January 2022 - India Currents Magazine. I also shared it on my web site,
WhenLooseEndsMeet.com

Thrity Umrigar weaves a story of two women whose lives become entwined under haunting circumstances.
In a rural village in India, the marriage of a Hindi and a Muslim is frowned upon. The brides brothers take matters into their own hands, leading to devastating results.

Themes: motherhood, religious zealotry, class, culture, responsibility to family, choices, and so much more.

Highly recommend.

Discussed on Episode 146 and 147 of the Book Cougars podcast.

I absolutely loved this book. Umrigar's prose is fluid and natural, her characters are well developed and the story is compelling. The India in Honor is well created, exposing both the positive and negative parts of the country. This is a story about society in India, including the patriarchal standards, prejudices and horrifying behaviors, but beyond any of this it is a universal story about healing from trauma and what it means to love.
This story will stay with me for a long time. I would strongly recommend it to anyone!

I enjoyed reading this novel, with its two parallel stories of a journalist's return to India after leaving due to traumatic events as a teen, and the subject of her news story who is undergoing a similar though much more severe trauma.

The author raises important topics around race, culture, discrimination, gender equality and outright violence, in a tender and nuanced way. The protagonist's unfolding romance that was woven throughout may have helped to make these more palatable to readers, yet in my view diminished their importance.

I recommend this novel to those who seek to explore worlds outside their own without being overly challenged by them.

A remarkable story about complex issues including family, identity, love, sacrifice and honor. While the subject matter was difficult to read at times, I enjoyed going on this journey. Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This book covers so many emotions love, hate, absolution, looking for justice for such destructive ways in an India that I wish did not exist. A must read for 2022. I was drawn in from.beginning to end.

Thank you Netgalley for this ARC.

Honor by @thrity_umrigar is the story of Smita, an Indian American journalist who has reluctantly come home to India after leaving many years before following a tragedy, to cover a story. It is also the story of Meena, the Hindu woman whose story Smita is covering, who was attacked by her own brothers for marrying a Muslim man and is now seeking justice against all odds. Though a cultural divide separates these women now, the story weaves together the similarities in their painful pasts and their struggle with love, family, betrayal, and sacrifice.

Thrity Umrigar is such a wonderful writer; I’ve read many of her novels, so was over the moon when @algonquinbooks asked me to be a part of the book tour for this stunning, yet heartbreaking tale. It reminded me so much of one of my favourite reads of all time – A Thousand Splendid Suns. It is not an easy read as it is filled with misogyny, honor killings, Islamophobia, betrayal, and violence against women and children, but it is also a story of love, hope, and loving your home even through its darkness.

The dual POV story lines were executed well and were equally captivating. I became invested in the characters immediately and couldn’t put it down once I started. Although I knew how the story would end with the reality of these situations still to this day, it still broke my heart and didn’t detract from my love of the story.

I would recommend this one for anyone who loves stories by @khosseini , @thealkajoshi , or who have loved other novels by this author.



Thank you so much to @algonquinbooks for sending me this ARC!

Through the story of two women, Honor by Thrity Umrigar tackles many issues surrounding even modern day India - poverty, corruption, religious tensions, and, most of all, violence against women. This view is tempered through the depiction of Mohan, who embodies a passion for his homeland and a vision of what it could be. Both Meena and Smita are memorable characters, and the events described so tragic that the book will stay with me for a long time.

Read my complete review at http://www.memoriesfrombooks.com/2022/01/honor.html

Reviewed for NetGalley.

This story about an Indian-American journalist returning to India to help out a fellow journalist had me feeling lots of rage but also happiness, comfort, and love. The rage comes from the story that the journalist ends up covering about a Hindu woman whose Muslim husband is burned to death by the woman's Hindu brothers. Although that is the main point and focus of the book, Umrigar is a master at telling a gut-wrenching story yet adding additional story lines that manage to leave readers hopeful.

HONOR was one of my most anticipated books. But unfortunately, this one did not work for me. While Umrigar’s I loved Umrigar’s writing (and Sneha Mattan’s narration), unlike the author’s previous books (The Space Between Us and The Secrets Between Us are some of my favorite books), this is one that lacked nuance and depth. Her characters were all one-dimensional, and I feared many were harmfully stereotyped, especially Meena. I couldn't help wonder about the purpose of including her story, which is all trauma porn. Perhaps to pull at white readers’ heartstrings? White women love reading about oppressed and suffering women of color, thinking it doesn’t happen in America. I found it ironic that Meena’s story is even added since, at one point, Smita questions her integrity as a journalist, afraid she's writing trauma porn for American readers.

I don’t know enough about India's religious tensions between Muslims and Hindus. Still, I did wonder if perhaps much of the plot and characters were stereotyped to perpetuate the India - poor, dirty, and backward India that westerners are familiar with.


I appreciated the parts when Smita processes complicated feelings about India, her motherland, and all the good and bad, especially when viewing India through an American-educated/raised lens and from more of a privileged background, which resonated with me. When I return to Korea, the country I love but still painfully conservative and backward, anger me to no end. However, I don’t think I cared much for Smita. I was not emotionally invested in the plot or the characters whatsoever.

I was incredibly disappointed since I have read a few of the author’s previous books and could not believe HONOR was by the same author. Umrigar told the complicated and unforgettable story of the Bhima and Serabai’s relationship in THE SPACE BETWEEN US. How is this the same author who wrote such a nuanced and lovable character, Parvati, in THE SECRETS BETWEEN US?

While I appreciated that themes of caste, class division, interfaith marriage, and privilege were included, I felt they were merely mentioned and not explored enough. The only thing that kept me going was Umrigar’s incredible writing. But even that did not save this book for me. Even to the very end, I couldn’t help but wonder who this was written for, almost as if someone knew it’d be Reese’s book club pick.

The author mentions a few times throughout the book that Meena’s devastating story happens more in rural parts of India. Still, I’m not sure if that’ll make a difference to readers when the characters and plot continue to perpetuate the harmful stereotypes until the very end.

Honor, by Thrity Umrigar, is a compelling book about two strong women, both Indian, that live vastly different lives but share so much of the same spirit. Umrigar is a talented writer that continually creates engaging stories about the people and culture of India to life. I’m always excited to learn about her upcoming books, they are instant buys for me.

The story follows Meena, a working-class woman from a small town, who is suing her brothers for killing her beloved husband because she married a Muslim, rather than a Hindu like herself. Marrying outside the faith is quite unusual, and in this case, caused much unrest. Smita, a journalist and our other protagonist, finds herself back in India to interview Meena. Both are strong women, learning to fight difficult circumstances in a misogynistic society.

As the two women get to know one another, they create a friendship that seems unlikely, but their paths brought them together, and will ultimately bond them in life and death. This was an important story about walking in other people’s shoes, the importance of compromise, woman’s rights, strong women, social justice and mother-daughter relationships. Once again, Umrigar has shown her skills as an expert storyteller. Well done!

Many thanks to NetGalley and Algonquin Books for the honor of reading the latest book by Thrity Umrigar - 5 glorious stars!

Indian American journalist Smita has returned to India to help out her fellow journalist, Shannon, complete a story. Smita swore she would never return to India after her family left for America when she was a teenager. Shannon was writing about the case of Meena, a Hindu woman who followed her heart to marry Abdul, a Muslim. Meena's family orchestrated a horrific attack on the couple because of the marriage, and Meena is trying her best to fight back to restore honor to her husband's name. Smita is suddenly faced with her own past, where Indian tradition rules over all.

What an amazing book this is - a definite must read for the new year! The author immerses you into the Indian culture, especially in small villages, where women have no say to their life path. That such horrific crimes still exist in this world in the name of honor should make every human being stand up in protest. I read this book with my heart in my throat - you will feel so much emotion for these characters. The title is so apt - honor has many different meanings and this book highlights them all. Can't recommend this one enough!

Wow. Honor ripped my heart apart then sewed it back together slightly larger than it was before. This book is more than a window to another world, it’s a window to multiple worlds as we experience several cultural perspectives presented with empathy and authenticity. It’s an intimate look at India through the eyes of someone who knows what it is to be both native and a foreigner.
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Indian American journalist Smita has returned to India to cover the heartbreaking story of Meena, a Hindu woman whose Muslim husband was killed by her brothers for their interfaith marriage. We hear their stories in this largely character driven novel and join both women in their journey for justice and change.
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At times this reads like a beautiful memoir and I had to remind myself that it’s fiction. It took a few chapters for me to connect but once I did I was completely hooked. (I was late for a doctor’s appointment because I HAD to keep reading). I was so compelled by the story and my heart absolutely ached for Meena and Smita.
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It’s the type of book that could have had a glossary up front but without one it forces the use of context clues yet never feels confusing, allowing for an immersive and transportive experience that appropriately makes you feel like a visitor and an outsider.
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It’s a gem of a book that brought instant tears and will stick with me.
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Recommend for: Readers looking for a gorgeous, heart tugging read with insight into another culture
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May not be for you if: You don’t want the sad feels right now. You’re strictly a plot driven reader.

How has Thirty Umrigar not been on my reading list before? She is now. With her latest book, Honor, she hits hard on social, financial and gender equity in India. Smita Agarwal fled India as a teen along with her parents and brother. They settled in the United States. Smita, now an international journalist, returns to Mumbai, the place of her birth, to help a friend recover from surgery. Only it turns into her friend telling her she needs to cover the trial of a young, illiterate girl who has accused her brothers of murdering her husband. Disfigured by fire, Meena, caught the attention of a Mumbai lawyer who takes her case. If you are wealthy or a tourist, you don’t see this side of India where in the country men hold all the power and police and judges are easily bribed. The book is honest, gritty and vivid. With well-developed characters, the reader is engulfed in Smita and Meena’s lives Honor is a book that will remain with the reader long after the last word is read. Umirger does a powerful job of making me realize how lucky I am.

“…𝘢 𝘱𝘦𝘰𝘱𝘭𝘦 𝘸𝘩𝘰 𝘮𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘰𝘬 𝘳𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘯𝘨𝘦 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘩𝘰𝘯𝘰𝘳, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘣𝘭𝘰𝘰𝘥𝘭𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘥𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯.”

Sometimes a story comes along that profoundly affects me; this is one of those stories! One that makes me wonder how some people hate in the name of religion, class, and race while others love despite it.

Smita is an Indian American journalist who travels back to India when a fellow journalist and friend asks her to cover a story for her. The story involves Meena, a young Hindu mother who was severely burned as she watched her husband be burned alive. This horrific act happened at the hands of Meena’s own brothers and her fellow villagers simply because she chose to marry a Muslim.

As Smita investigates Meena’s story, with the help of Mohan, the man her friend introduced her to, she is haunted by her own childhood growing up in India and the reasons why her family fled to America. Smita and Mohan both become very close to Meena and try to do all they can to help her. But they are continually reminded that India is a place of ancient traditions, where the lines of love and hate become blurred in the name of honor.

The love story between Meena and her Abdul is beautiful and heart-wrenching, starting with him risking to share some mangoes with a Hindu girl. Smita slowly shares her own story with Mohan as they witness the atrocities that Meena must go through.

𝐇𝐨𝐧𝐨𝐫 has many parts that are hard to stomach, but I believe everyone should read it. Thrity Umrigar writes with such authenticity; she has taken a difficult subject and has shown both the ugliness and the raw humanity. And also the sacrifice some people are willing to make: “𝘣𝘦𝘤𝘢𝘶𝘴𝘦 𝘐 𝘭𝘰𝘷𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘦.”

Thank you to @algonquinbooks and @thrity_umrigar for a spot on tour and a gifted copy.