“As children, we were taught to be afraid of tigers and lions. Nobody taught us what I know today - the most dangerous animal in this world is a man with wounded pride.”

Honor was our first bookclub pick, and I couldn’t have been more happy with it. 

Honor follows Smita as she returns to India to as a journalist to report on a case of a Hindu woman and a Muslim man were attacked by her own family strictly for the fact they were married. He did not survive. She was left permanently injured. Meena is now set to press charges against her own brothers and members of her village who tried to burn her alive. While many passages focus on Meena, Smita also shares her story and why her family left in the first place. 

This is hard novel to read at times and will hurt your heart. Sometimes as outsiders it’s hard for many of to understand old traditions in this day and age that are so detrimental and punitive to women. While this book is fiction, Meena’s story echos true stories of women being attacked, brutalized and murdered that for many of are immaterial life choices but for a heavily patriarchal and conservative group are morally just reasons for acts of violence. 

While the book does explore some really dark topics, there is a small amount of hope throughout and the last chapter will break your heart while also leaving you hopeful. 

Overall across formats (physical reads, e-reads, and audiobook) this was well received in the group. I think it’s safe to say we’d all recommend it. I can’t thank the women enough who were able to attend Bookclub to have the deep discussions and share their personal stories that run in parallel with Meena and Smita and talking about when and why we’ll never really be the same.