This was a really beautiful book, but a tough read/listen. Michelle does an incredible job presenting a deeply honest perspective on the complicated reality of being with a dying parent, which at times is extremely touching and sweet and at others is brutal in its detailed portrayal of suffering.

Although I had a hard time truly rooting for any of the characters, I did enjoy my time with Goddess of the River. I had never read the Mahabharata, or heard any stories from it, so a lot of the plot twists came as true surprises.

The good - I appreciate how this story asks deep questions about morality, duty, ethics and the importance of keeping your word, but doesn’t provide any answers. It sets up scenarios that at first seem easy to pass judgement on, but only become more complicated with each generation introduced. I loved the parts of the story that were from Ganga’s POV, especially towards the beginning of the book, and enjoyed reading about humanity from the perspective of a river. The audiobook narrator, Sneha Mathan, was also wonderful to listen to.

The not-so-good: With the POV shifting between Ganga and her son Bhishma, it became hard to ground down into any one character and I ended up not liking or relating to either of them that much. Because there’s sooo much plot to cover, it felt a little bit like we were just glancing off the surface of these big moments without deeply exploring how the characters felt moment to moment. (The times where we DID get deeper emotional reflections from Ganga were my favorite parts of the book). I understand this is due to the Herculean task of adapting an 800 page epic into something more manageable, and that there’s only so many liberties you can take when adapting.

Ultimately, the audiobook made a great car companion, got some genuine gasps out of me, and I’m grateful to have been exposed to stories from a different culture!