‘Mother Mary Comes to Me’ is a stunning memoir by Arundhati Roy. The book presents the conversation the writer never had with her mother. She celebrates her mother’s strengths and reports honestly on her less admirable traits. The writer does not accuse but seeks to understand her mother’s circumstances and background. Her mother’s name is Mary—a woman who lived an extraordinary life beyond motherhood. Throughout the book, the writer shows her mother’s kindness, militant courage, ruthlessness, generosity, cruelty, bullying, and business sense. Her mother also had a wild and unpredictable temper that completed her unique personality. The writer’s mother was both a hero and a challenging presence. The story is an introspection, which comes from deep memories and emotions provoked by her mother’s death. The writer reveals her pain at leaving home without her mother searching for her. Her mother never asked about how she managed to get her degree, not even until the end of her life. The mother saw no need to find out, believing in a comforting lie. The writer crafted this lie: “The mother loved her enough to let her go.”

Arundhati Roy builds her novel on her own life and her mother’s, especially her childhood. She explores her painful and complex relationship with her mother. Roy describes their bond as the clash of two fierce powers. She realises that having a difficult parent is only one side of their story. Her mother also faced enormous pressure, demands and expectations of motherhood. People held rigid views about how mothers should behave. Her mother’s nature gave Roy the courage to enter the world boldly. Between episodes of violence and rage, her mother encouraged her to become whoever she wanted. Roy grew up ‘on the edge of’ a conservative community, but her strength came from her mother.

The Fearless Spirit of a Mother

She discusses the need for space to grow into something unique—beyond simply “mother or daughter”. The book introduces subtle beliefs through these lived experiences. Roy finds her mother endlessly fascinating. She had to learn how to shield herself from her mother’s harshness. Childhood memories show her mother’s bitterness towards men. Her mother held valid reasons for these feelings. The memoir shows that not every mother must be perfect. Roy values some qualities in her mother even more than traditional “goodness”.

The memoir’s writing style is incredible. The language articulates a compelling, complex story in a relatable way. Roy shows how a writer takes shape and develops artistic sensibilities under great duress. The writing amazes readers on many different levels. The impactful vocabulary reveals new layers of meaning each time someone reads the memoir.

As readers move through this memoir, they feel strong emotions and deep realisations. The writer needed to leave her mother to keep loving her, not because she stopped loving her. Her mother fought battles her daughter did not need to face. The writer did not want to dim or defeat her mother. The memoir powerfully shows the writer’s struggle to accept her mother fully, just as she was. The mother, the book’s protagonist, leaves a lasting impression on readers. The descriptions create sensory overload. Roy describes her mother as the daring figure in a stifling South Indian town.

Beyond Perfection

The writer watched her mother unleash her genius and eccentricity. In the writer’s mind, her mother seemed taller than billboards, wilder than rivers and as relentless as rain. She seemed more present than the sea itself. The memoir reveals her mother’s larger-than-life image. The writer could never form one opinion or package her mother into a simple summary. Her mother existed as an ever-changing spectrum. Their relationship seemed strange and complex. The writer changed shape to accommodate her mother and felt great emptiness after her mother died.

Step into the pages of ‘Mother Mary Comes to Me’ and discover a story that will touch your heart. Arundhati Roy paints vivid scenes with language that captivates and inspires. Every chapter reveals emotions and wisdom a reader will not forget. The book invites readers to reflect, feel, and grow alongside the writer. Pick up this memoir and experience courage, love and the resilience of the human spirit. Let this extraordinary journey move you—and remind you of the beauty in every difficult bond.

‘All We Want is to Exist’ by Nirupama Chaudhary is a collection of poems that reflect on different emotions. The book conveys the human desire for meaningful connection, belonging and validation. It emphasises the need to feel seen by others and how it shapes our perception and choices.  The book provides a sense of unity to the readers by addressing a common desire for recognition. It represents the ups and downs of human experiences.

The Journey of Self-Discovery through Emotional Depth

The poems portray the journey of introspection and finding one’s place in the world. The author conveys the desire to leave an impact and influence the world around us. Another recurring theme in the book is failures, emphasising how they guide us through our journey. Failures are an important step in shaping an individual. They are the building blocks of character and personality. The writer encourages readers to embrace their flaws and find meaning in their journey of self-discovery.  The very existence of humankind inevitably encompasses these common emotions that are scattered through the poems in the book.  

The poet also touches on the themes of love and hope, enhancing a positive side to the message. The poems illustrate love and connection as a defining force in our lives. They bring out the depth and significance that relationships and “love” in particular add to our lives. The poet also reflects on the hope that people carry to live on through memories. It is believed that we are a fusion of the people we share a bond with throughout our lives. The book draws on this belief, interweaving relationships and their effect on our individual lives.

Emotions as the Essence of Human Experience

‘All We Want is to Exist’ is a reminder of what it means to be human. It brings out the beauty of experiencing, connecting and growing through adversity. The book serves as a source of inspiration to help one another on this journey of self-discovery. It motivates readers to go in search of meaning. The writer encourages us to embrace the depth of our emotions, as they are what make life meaningful. We all share a common goal: to live and be remembered. Not just to exist but to actually “live”. The only way to do so is to embrace all our complexities to create an emotionally rich heritage.

Ultimately, ‘All We Want is to Exist’ gives a detailed view of the elements that shape our human experiences. The various themes explored delve into how our emotional world is directly tied to our aspirations and wants. It beautifully conveys the contribution of our connections to our self-worth and the legacy we leave behind. It is an inspiration to readers to live intentionally, compassionately and authentically while also encouraging them to see the beauty in their own stories.

   Winner of the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature and longlisted for the Booker Prize, Anuradha Roy has, over the years, established herself as one of India’s most luminous literary voices. Her prose is known for being deeply evocative, lush yet restrained, vivid yet overwrought. The same poetic subtlety appears to infuse her latest offering, Called By The Hills

   Unlike her celebrated novels, this work steps into non-fiction, and yet, the promise seems familiar: a seamless weave of place, memory and philosophy. At the heart of the book lies Roy’s discovery of a new home in the Himalayas— not just a house of bricks and mortar, but a retreat carved out of solitude and resilience. Moving there with her husband and a pack of dogs, she exchanges the relentless hum of urbanity for a life shaped by forest trials, high-altitude silences and a small, tightly knit rural community. 

   If her previous works, such as The Folded Earth and All the Lives We Never Lived captured the romance and ruthlessness of the mountains through fiction, this book appears poised to render the Himalayas through lived experience— their stark beauty, fragile ecosystems and the rhythms of those who inhabit their slopes. Readers can expect a lush yet intimate chronicle, where the act of making a home becomes inseparable from an act of deep observation.

   Early impressions and published notes suggest that Called By The Hills is not just a mere travelogue or memoir, but something more reflective— an exploration of what it means to belong, to adapt and to slow down in a world that rarely allows stillness. With her trademark elegance, Roy is likely to braid ecological concerns, cultural nuance and personal narrative to prose that is at once meditative and alive with detail: the hush of snowfall, the back of distant dogs, the pulse of a forest on a misread morning. 

   For those who have admired her earlier fiction, this book offers a chance to experience Roy’s craft unfiltered by the scaffolding of invented characters. For new readers, it promises an entry point into a body of work where language and landscape share an almost spiritual kinship. In a literary culture often dominated by urgency, here is a book that seems designed to be savoured slowly, like watching a mountain dissolve sunrise at the last veil of night. 

Why It Matters

• A return to elemental beauty: This book speaks to a deep yearning for rootedness in a world that feels increasingly transient. 
• Nature and narrative intertwined: Expect Roy’s delicate, precise prose to make the Himalayas as intimate as a memory and as vast as a dream.
• For readers of reflective non-fiction: Fans of Pico Iyer, Ruskin Bond or Arundhathi Subramaniam will find a similar contemplative grace here.

Final Thoughts 

If the title sounds deceptively modest Called By The Hills the experience promises to be anything but. Anuradha Roy has always written like someone listening to the earth breathe, and now she gives us a book rooted in that listening. Expect beauty. Expect quiet wonder. Expect, perhaps, to want your own small house in the mountains when you’re done reading. 

Mudritha, originally published in Malayalam in 2021, by Jissa Jose and now available in English translation by Jayasree Kalathil, is a hauntingly lyrical debut novel that unfolds through a disappearance, yet its resonance reaches far beyond a typical mystery. 

   At its core, Mudritha begins with the curious case of Aniruddhan, a struggling travel agent, who files a missing person complaint at a police station — Mudritha, a woman he has never met except via phone and email. This odd request was for arranging a trip to Odisha for Mudritha and nine other women. While the authorities initially consider the case trivial, Vanitha, the investigating officer, quietly takes it upon herself to dig deeper.

   What emerges from the inquiry is not a straightforward search but a mosaic of intimate stories: of Mudritha and the group of women she gathered, each with their own life, longing and quiet rebellion. These women, diverse in background and experience, converge for the journey as much to explore the world as to explore themselves. Through their voices and perspectives, delivered via emails, memories, recollections, the narrative becomes an exploration of identity, freedom and resistance in spaces where women are often rendered invisible. 

   From my reading, and echoing the sentiments of many reviewers online, Mudritha stands out for the way it reshapes the idea of disappearance. Instead of leaning into suspense or procedural tropes, the book expands sideways, illuminating multiple women’s lives with a rare tenderness and attentiveness.

   The shifting perspectives are one of the novel’s greatest strengths. Each character feels distinct, not just because of their circumstances but because of the emotional textures the author gives them— moments of hesitation, flashes of humour, buried griefs. It’s worthy to note how, through these varying lenses, the investigation becomes less about “solving” a mystery and more about seeing the ways women carve out spaces for themselves in the shadows of social expectations. 

   Another recurrent praise across several platforms is the prose itself. Even in translation, Jissa Jose’s writing carried over by Jayasree Kalathil, retains a lyrical almost meditative rhythm. It is apt as the reviewers online have also called the language “poetic without pretension” and “quietly powerful”, with imagery that lingers well after a page is turned. The cadence allows the story to be both delicate and weighty, a balance many novels attempt but few achieve. 

   One takeaway is that the pacing might feel slow if one approaches the book expecting a plot-driven thriller. But for those open to a character-driven, layered reading experience, the slow unfurling is precisely what allows the novel’s emotional weight to settle in. Sometimes books are not to race through, it’s something to sit with. 

Final Thoughts

Mudritha is not a puzzle to be solved, it’s an echo to be listened to. It takes the premise of a missing-person case and uses it as a prism through which to refract the lives, struggles and quiet acts of defiance of multiple women. With luminous prose, empathetic storytelling, and a translation that feels organic rather than transplanted, it is a novel that asks for patience and gives, in return, a lasting emotional imprint. 

   It’s a book that will likely stay with readers who value layered narratives, who appreciate when fiction asks more questions that it answers and who recognise that sometimes the most radical act in a story is simply to leave. 

As we move through our days focusing on our responsibilities and duties, we lose track of what “life” is truly made up of. We focus so much on fulfilling what is required and expected of us that we don’t have time to actually take in and appreciate the simpler, more satisfying parts of life. The ironic part of life is that the very force that drives us also serves as the force that drains us. The motivation to refine our lives and make changes for the betterment of our reality is the very cause that we become discontented and unappreciative.

The fast-paced lives we live don’t allow us the time to actually see the beauty that dwells in solitude, silence, and stillness. Slowing down and actually taking a moment to live is considered a fleeting departure from the mundane. We have been conditioned to believe that peace and solace are short-lived “rewards” that we attain after striving and overextending ourselves.

Pico Iyer

The author, Pico Iyer (aka Siddharth Pico Raghavan Iyer), explores the wisdom that one can gain from stillness in his book ‘Learning from Silence.’ Pico Iyer is a British-born essayist and novelist of Indian descent who has gained popularity through his unique blend of travel writing with introspective and reflective themes. Apart from ‘Learning from Silence,’ Pico Iyer has written various books, including ‘Video Night in Kathmandu,’ ‘The Global Soul,’ ‘The Art of Stillness,’ and ‘The Half Known Life,’ exploring themes of displacement, identity, and inner stillness. Besides writing, he has held fellowships and taught at prestigious institutions as well as spoken at major literary festivals. He is famous for his minimalist and contemplative writing that he conveys in an eloquent and poetic manner. His writing is emotionally resonant as he focuses more on the meaning behind experiences and happenings rather than on what is witnessed firsthand.

‘Learning from Silence’

‘Learning from Silence’ talks about the different lessons the author has learned through his visits to New Camaldoli Hermitage, a Benedictine monastery in Big Sur, California. The monastery has served as a haven for the author while he navigated difficult passages of his life. Through these retreats he gained inner clarity, emotional healing, and self-awareness. The introspective and meditative method of learning made these lessons far more memorable and personal. The book serves as a compilation of philosophical insights from a number of great thinkers and seekers of silence.

In a world dominated by noise, urgency, and endless connection, the book offers a slow descent into calm, clarity, and quiet growth. Pico Iyer reflects on what it means to sit with silence, to find companionship in aloneness, and to rediscover joy in small, unspoken details. This book invites readers to embrace their solitude and a slower approach to life, encouraging them to learn their lessons through tranquility.