Daughter of the Ganges: A Memoir - Hardcover

Miro, Asha

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0743286723 ISBN 13: 9780743286725

Publisher: Atria, 2006

Synopsis

An Indian woman recounts her 1960s adoption by a Catalan family and her 2003 visit to her home country to uncover her native roots, a personal journey during which she discovered her rural home town and a sister she never knew. 30,000 first printing.

About this title

About the Author

Asha Miró has been living in Barcelona since 1974. Formerly a music teacher, she now collaborates on several cultural television programs and actively supports adoption organizations throughout Spain. Already a bestseller in Europe, Daughter of the Ganges has also inspired a documentary and a major European cartoon series with seven-year-old Asha as its protagonist.

Please visit the author's website at www.asha-miro.com.

From School Library Journal

Adult/High School–Born in India, the author was adopted in 1974 at age six by a Catalan couple. She grew up to become a professional musician like them, but longed to know more about India and her past. Part One describes her return there 20 years later, to a work camp assisting the Bombay poor. Miró experienced a new culture and struggled to reconcile her Indian and European selves while she searched for facts about her first six years. Forming a counterpoint to this often-troubled quest are excerpts from a diary, lovingly written by her adoptive mother, about the girl's life in Spain. At the orphanage, Miró found a nun who remembered her, but of her birth parents she would only say that she was a Daughter of the Ganges. Though a spiritually gratifying concept (the sacred waters gave birth to India), the author pressed on in Western fashion, locating official records of her birth but finally reaching a dead end. After this first essay had become famous, she returned with a documentary film crew to retrace her steps. Part Two describes her second trip and how she delved deeper and located her extended birth family. This complex, nuanced, and thought-provoking personal journey is related in deceptively simple prose. Some readers might wish for a map, but the black-and-white photos are well chosen and revealing. A unique memoir with wide appeal.–Christine C. Menefee, formerly at Fairfax County Public Library, VA
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Edition details

• Publisher: Atria
• Publication date: 2006
• ISBN 10: 0743286723
• ISBN 13: 9780743286725
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 288