TheGallery

Manju Kapur is the author of six novels. Her first, Difficult Daughters, won the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for Best First Book (Eurasia Section). The Immigrant was shortlisted for the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature.The Gallery pursues the question of what it takes for a woman to stand up for herself, through the intertwined lives of Minal and Ellora Sahni, wife and daughter, respectively, of the successful New Delhi lawyer Alok Sahni, and Maitrye and Tashi, wife and daughter of Krisna Tamang, an office peon at Sahni's office. Set in Delhi and Nepal, the novel explores the lives of the two families over three decades. Through the course of the narrative, these women come into true independence, negotiating marriage and maternity, navigating betrayals and heartbreak. In the background is art, and the role of art - art as property and art as poetry - woven into the fabric of the story as a gallery that Minal opens in the basement of their mansion to give herself a chance at a meaningful life.