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Queen of Dreams by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni — book cover

Queen of Dreams

by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
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Overview

From the bestselling author of Sister of My Heart comes a spellbinding tale of mothers and daughters, love and cultural identity. Rakhi, a young painter and single mother, is struggling to come to terms with her relationship with ex-husband Sonny, a hip Bay Area DJ, and with her dream-teller mother, who has rarely spoken about her past or her native India. Rakhi has her hands full, juggling a creative dry spell, raising her daughter, and trying to save the Berkeley teahouse she and her best friend Belle own. But greater challenges are to come. When a national tragedy turns her world upside down and Rakhi needs her mother’s strength and wisdom more than ever, she loses her in a freak car accident. But uncovering her mother’s dream journals allows Rakhi to discover her mother’s long-kept secrets and sacrifices–and ultimately to confront her fears, forge a new relationship with her father, and revisit Sonny’s place in her heart.

Synopsis

From the bestselling author of Sister of My Heart comes a spellbinding tale of mothers and daughters, love and cultural identity. Rakhi, a young painter and single mother, is struggling to come to terms with her relationship with ex-husband Sonny, a hip Bay Area DJ, and with her dream-teller mother, who has rarely spoken about her past or her native India. Rakhi has her hands full, juggling a creative dry spell, raising her daughter, and trying to save the Berkeley teahouse she and her best friend Belle own. But greater challenges are to come. When a national tragedy turns her world upside down and Rakhi needs her mother’s strength and wisdom more than ever, she loses her in a freak car accident. But uncovering her mother’s dream journals allows Rakhi to discover her mother’s long-kept secrets and sacrifices–and ultimately to confront her fears, forge a new relationship with her father, and revisit Sonny’s place in her heart.

USA Today - Deirdre Donahue

Queen of Dreams, Divakaruni's 11th book, includes elements of magic, intuition and folklore drawn from India. But the story of the conflicted, discontented single mother is a darker, contemporary tale that will resonate with anyone who has struggled with modern love, mores and parenthood.

About the Author, Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

Award-winning author and poet Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni was born in India and came to the United States at 19. She put herself through Berkeley doing odd jobs, from working at an Indian boutique to slicing bread in a bakery -- nowadays, she's enjoying the raves for her latest novel, Queen of Dreams.

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Editorials

Deirdre Donahue

Queen of Dreams, Divakaruni's 11th book, includes elements of magic, intuition and folklore drawn from India. But the story of the conflicted, discontented single mother is a darker, contemporary tale that will resonate with anyone who has struggled with modern love, mores and parenthood.
— USA Today

Publishers Weekly

Spiked with elements of mystery, suspense and the supernatural, Divakaruni's sixth novel is a pleasantly atypical tale of self-discovery. Rakhi, a single mother and struggling artist living in Berkeley, Calif., has always been vaguely aware of her own mother's unusual gift the ability to interpret dreams. Between juggling a laundry list of other priorities keeping her floundering tea shop afloat after a Starbucks-esque supercafe moves in across the street, battling her ex-husband for their daughter's affections, finding her artistic voice Rakhi longs to know more about her mother's past and her own hazy Indian heritage. After a mysterious car accident claims her mother's life, Rakhi, with her father's help, sets out to decipher Mrs. Gupta's dream journals in hopes of unlocking the secrets of her peculiar double life. A shadowy man in white who appears at pivotal moments, a sinister rival and entries from Mrs. Gupta's dream journals all punctuate this cleverly imagined tale of love, forgiveness and new beginnings. Meanwhile, September 11 disrupts Rakhi's search for identity, and a vicious attack on her friends and family calls their notions of citizenship into question. Divakaruni (The Mistress of Spices; Sister of My Heart; etc.) does a good job working current issues into the novel and avoids synthetic characterization, creating a free-flowing story that will captivate readers. Agent, Sandra Dijkstra. (Sept. 14) Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

Protagonist Rakhi is no queen (actually, she's a divorced artist mom). But she is struggling to understand her deceased mother's dream journals. Meanwhile, her own dreams are floundering as she and her Indian friends are attacked as terrorists after 9/11. From the popular author of Mistress of Spices. Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

Poet and novelist Divakaruni (The Conch Bearer, 2003, etc.) stirs up a tasty curry that's half-mystery, half-fantasy in a clever tale of a young woman trying to sort out the mystery of her mother's death-and life. Having a clairvoyant mother can be a pain, but not always. Berkeley artist Rakhi Gupta is going through all the usual thirtysomething traumas of family and career-her first gallery exhibition is due to open soon, her coffeehouse is being undersold by a Starbucks-like competitor, her loathsome ex-husband is constantly dropping in to see their daughter-and she's getting desperate enough to do the worst thing a grown girl can do: turn to her mother for help. Mrs. Gupta is an India-born "dream reader" who has developed a select following in California for her ability to interpret her clients' nocturnal fantasies ("A dream of milk means you are about to fall ill"). Rakhi wants to sound her out on a few worries of her own, but before she has the chance her mother is killed in a car accident. Rakhi's father, who survives the crash, tells her that just before the accident her mother seemed to be pursuing someone in a mysterious black car. Creepy enough-and now Rakhi's six-year-old daughter Jona is becoming more and more insistent that her imaginary friend Elaina isn't imaginary at all. A childhood fantasy-or a more complicated grown-up one? Somehow, Rakhi feels that the answers lie in her mother's dream notebooks, which her father has agreed to translate for her. As a record of the hidden world of her clients and herself, Mrs. Gupta's notebooks unlocked the door to many mysteries during her lifetime. Perhaps they'll do so once more now that she is dead. Richly textured and artfully toldthrough the varied perspectives of believable characters. Agent: Sandra Dijkstra

Book Details

Published
October 1, 2005
Publisher
Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Pages
352
Format
Paperback
ISBN
9781400030446

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