Arundhati Roy’s memoir, Mother Mary Comes To Me, is about family, resilience, and the sometimes complicated relationship between a mother and daughter. The book explores Roy’s relationship with her mother, Mary Roy, who is a sharp, restless, and very charismatic figure. She built her own school in India and became a celebrated educator. Mary Roy is a visionary who rules with an iron fist, who often treated Arundhati and her brother harshly throughout their lives.

The memoir spans Roy’s life, from her early years under her mother’s strict and emotionally overbearing rule to her eventual rise as a renowned author. Roy first studied architecture in Delhi, but her passion for writing never faded. This led her to become one of the most celebrated literary voices of her generation. After the success of her debut novel, The God of Small Things, which won the Booker Prize in 1997, she went on to write both fiction and non-fiction.

Mother Mary Comes to Me is beautiful, funny, and heartbreaking. Roy doesn’t shy away from the strain and trouble in the relationship with her mother, but she also reveals the deep love that eventually emerged between them. The book is raw and honest, showing Roy’s struggle with unresolved feelings and fears as she writes about her past.

This is an deeply personal story and a thought-provoking memoir that left me reflecting on the complexities of love, ambition, and forgiveness. I’ll be thinking about it for a long time and will definitely encourage others to grab a copy. I’ll also be picking up a copy of The God of Small Things soon.