The Secret Keeper

On Friday I received The Secret Keeper by Mitali Perkins in the mail. On Saturday morning I started reading it and was finished by Saturday night. This is a wonderful young adult novel set in Bangladesh in the mid 1970s. Indira Gandhi is the prime minister and there is a great deal of unrest. Asha Gupta is sixteen years old, trying to grow up and keep up with her beautiful older sister, Reet. Their father leaves the girls and their mother in the care of their uncle while Father travels to America looking for an engineering job. The search takes longer than anyone likes and the family's need for money begins to cause some stress. Reet is old enough to be married off so Uncle begins to look into that, and Reet, despite her own feelings about marriage, goes along with Uncle in order to please her mother. Asha has a harder time conforming to the traditional role set before her. She dreams of going to college and can't wait for Father to send for them in America. Helping her pass time is Jay, an artist who lives next door. The two meet to talk on the roof of their homes in secret, since doing so publicly would not be allowed. When they finally hear from Father the whole family is left to cope with their new status and Asha continues to struggle with her promise to her father, that she take care of her mother.
I have never read Perkins' work before, but enjoyed this book thoroughly.