Missy’s life is divided into two unequal pieces. There is her youth in India and there is her much longer adulthood in the United States. The boundary between the two is a horrific crime and misunderstanding that sends Missy across the ocean. Raghav Rao’s entertaining and heartfelt novel, Missy, shows us both pieces of her life—the long shadow of past secrets and Missy’s determination to reinvent herself. Rao’s characters are lively, often funny, and incredibly headstrong.
Once upon a time in Tamil Nadu, a young girl named Savi fled from a famine with her mother. Only Savi survived the long march. Nuns took her in, taught her English, and attempted to get her to convert to Catholicism. When she reaches her teens, the nuns find a position for her as a governess and maid in the home of a wealthy guru. Compared to what Savi has known, this is a huge step up in the world. Unfortunately, it brings her into contact with the utterly repellant man who acts as the Nandiyar family’s chauffeur.
After Rao reveals the crime that turned Savi into a refugee, the novel jumps ahead several decades and to another continent. Savi is now Missy Royce, the founder and owner of the Dancing Shiva Driving School. She lives with her two daughters in a cozy home in Chicago. All would be right with her world if it wasn’t for two things: she is an undocumented immigrant and she doesn’t want to risk anyone finding out what happened to her in India. When a young Indian doctor turns up at Dancing Shiva, Missy’s formidable barrier between past and present starts to crumble. It’s finally time for Missy to open up about what she’s been hiding all these years.
I realize that the above summary makes Missy sound like a heavy book. There are heavy moments, but I was charmed by the lightness of this book. Missy and her daughters, Shilpa and Mansi, are delightful characters. As much as they bicker and push each other’s buttons, their love for each other is evident in the way Missy cooks for her daughters, Mansi’s pushes to be better people, and Shilpa’s efforts to keep things legal. The scenes showing Missy and her family’s home life feel like being wrapped up in a warm blanket and served something hot and delicious.
The conclusion of the book—which brings closure to many plot threads while also leaving a few others open—felt not so much like a climax as it did like bidding farewell to characters whose lives are going to carry on past the last page. Some readers may not like the ambiguity but I was very satisfied by the ending of Missy. Even though I don’t know what will happen to some of the characters, I like the idea that they’re out there in Chicago and Tamil Nadu, meddling in each other’s lives and welcoming new family and friends into the fold.
I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley, for review consideration.