Strangers in India
Photo by Nicola Fioravanti on Unsplash
In Thrity Umrigar’s tenth novel, Museum of Failures, Remy Wadia returns to India to care for his ailing mother. Beset by guilt for the distance he kept from her during his time in the United States — and his failure to realize just how sick she really is — Remy aims to set things right. He also uncovers an old photograph and a family secret that upends his memories of his childhood, just as he struggles himself with being a father.
—Jina Moore Ngarambe for Guernica
They ate dinner in Shirin’s room, Shirin too exhausted to come to the dining table. Seeing her wan face, lined with fatigue, Remy felt a pang of apprehension. Here he was, getting ahead of himself as usual. Mummy looked as if she could slip away tonight.
“Wake me up if there’s the slightest need,” he whispered to Manju after they’d tucked Shirin in for the night. “Keep an extra eye on her tonight. She’s very tired.”
Manju’s lips were a thin line, her face brimming with disapproval at his misadventure from this morning.
He returned to his room but it was too early for him to go to bed. He turned on Netflix on the TV in his bedroom, settling in to watch an episode of The Crown. He had enjoyed watching the show with Kathy, but at this moment, the stiff upper lip stoicism of the British aristocracy got on his nerves. , he said out loud,
