Though I grew
up in an Indian home, with a heavy dose of Indian culture, I was born and raised outside India. As a result, writing about that country sometimes makes me feel like a fraud. I’ve worked hard to overcome that insecurity,
but it doesn’t mean I keep an open mind about non-Indians who write fiction set there. I mean, come on!
Then a
friend called to gush about it. A must read, it seemed. And when I did read
it, well, it blew me away. I knew from the get-go that the author did his
research, because page one starts in Matheran, a small, little-known hill
station, essentially a mountain resort town, just outside Mumbai. That the
author worked this sort of obscure setting into his intro impressed me, kept me reading, later, about
zoo life in Chennai, and cleaning out lion cages and feeding the monkeys. I was
transfixed. The book also has one of the most stunning endings you’ll ever
read.
A few years
later, I was excited to pick up a crime author writing about an
Indian theme. Karin Fossum, Norway’s “queen of crime,” has written 14
novels, of which 10 fall under the Inspector Sejer crime series.
Her fourth
Inspector Sejer novel, aptly named The
Indian Bride, takes on the premise of the first Indian immigrant to a small
Norwegian community. Since I’m not very familiar with Norwegian culture, I
wanted to see how she melded the two cultural themes together, one I am
familiar with, the other I’m not.
Fossum begins
her tale from the point of view of two characters—Gundar and his sister—whose
lives are about to change drastically, then later from Inspector Sejer’s
viewpoint as he investigates a bewildering, ghastly crime that the community that doesn't believe any of its citizens could have committed.
Simple
Gunder Jomann, who sells farm equipment in his sleepy rural town on the coast
of Norway, is a lonely, middle-aged bachelor who spends much of his time daydreaming about his
future wife, wondering when and where he’ll meet her. He knows everyone around,
so there aren’t any opportunities for him to meet women, and the ones who know
him just aren’t interested. After browsing through a travel magazine about India,
he admires the lovely women with the big dark eyes and elegant saris who grace its pages. It
occurs to him there are probably plenty of lovely, eligible women in the hugely
populous country who would be interested in marrying someone like him, a good person with a steady job and a comfortable home. And so, to the chagrin of his
concerned younger sister, Gunder prepares to take his first trip outside of Norway
to find a bride in India, even shopping for a diamond ring before he leaves. Once
in India, we experience all the chaos of Mumbai through Gundar. Before long, he meets and
marries Poona. (Wait’ll you read how he finds her!) He returns to Norway alone,
informs his very worried sister that he’s now a married man, then prepares to
welcome his young bride to her new home.
But when Poona is due to arrive at the airport, Gunder’s sister meets with a horrible car accident and Gunder has to send
someone else to pick up his new wife. Only problem is, she’s not there. Not
long after, the badly beaten corpse, that of a woman, is found elsewhere in town.
Coincidence? That’s when Inspector Sejer is called in to investigate.
I won’t tell
you more—finding out where this all leads is highly compelling, one of the
strongest portions of the book. (And don’t read the reviews—there are a lot of
spoilers out there!)
The book is relatively small, quiet, and satisfying. Fossum kept me turning the pages but not so fast that I couldn't get to know these well-drawn characters and enjoy the growing psychological suspense along with the whodunit factor. The character development is strong, subtle, and packs an emotional punch.
As Publisher’s Weekly commented in its starred review of The Indian Bride:
The book is relatively small, quiet, and satisfying. Fossum kept me turning the pages but not so fast that I couldn't get to know these well-drawn characters and enjoy the growing psychological suspense along with the whodunit factor. The character development is strong, subtle, and packs an emotional punch.
As Publisher’s Weekly commented in its starred review of The Indian Bride:
“Fossum may
not be well-known outside a select circle, but that could change with the
publication of this outstanding contemporary police procedural…. The ending is
not one most readers will expect, but it perfectly suits the tale of sad,
little lives and the tragic consequences of chance.”
Well put.
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