"She had tried, and she kept trying, to be the ideal daughter-in-law, the ideal wife, the ideal daughter. She was exhausted from all the trying."

Told from three narratives over several timelines, the story revolves around the lives of Radha, Shyam and Mira. Based outside of Delhi, Radha and Shyam are a young married couple. Radha is a stay at home wife who conforms to the standards of a patriarchal society- so much so that her in-laws change her name from Tina to a more conservative, Radha.

It is after Radha makes friends with her new neighbour Mira, that the lives of all three are flung to a whole new dimension.

There was a lot packed into this book. It was an intriguing read and I found it hard to put down. Our Liminal Spaces is the fifth book that I've read by Poornima Manco and she continues to impress.

When I was in college there was a tome that was touted to be the best in Indian soap opera style, without all the amnesia. Part way into it, I decided it wasn’t for me. It has since become a netflix show which I want even tempted to watch.

This book was more along the lines of what I expected in the first place. It is entirely a character based story with a wide range of differences in lifestyles and beliefs, but the core people are recognisable.

The story switches viewpoints in a very interesting fashion. The first is Radha who is a young wife, someone who is struggling with the changes her life seems to dictate to her. What happens at the end of her section was entirely unexpected. I do not read the blurb just before starting the story so I did not see the betrayal coming.

Then the time jumps ahead a few years to Shyam who made a dramatic choice. It has completely altered his life. He is struggling with being a parent and I understand why the author chose a child with downs syndrome to show how skin deep some affections can be. I was even more stunned by the way this section ended.

The time jump when we move to Mira’s section is much more significant. We are back in India for this, and I knew how Tina would come back into the plot, but the rest of the things caught me off guard.

Like with many of the author’s previous works, this is an entirely character based plot ( despite all the twists). I found myself engaged in the way people were processing the same information, even if I did not like the individual personality. I would highly recommend this book to people looking for Indian based drama books, as well as anyone just interested in this genre.

I received an ARC thanks to Netgalley and the publishers but the review is entirely based on my own reading experience of this and other books by the author.