Sister of My Heart

In the novel Sister of My Heart, the Indian-born American author and poet Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni explores issues of family, womanhood, and diasporic experience, constantly affirming and exploring the redemptive power of storytelling. Divakaruni’s first collection of stories, Arranged Marriage, won an American Book Award, a PEN Josephine Miles Award, and a Bay Area Book Reviewers Award. Her novel The Mistress of Spices was released as a film of the same name in 2005. Sister of My Heart was made into a television series by Suhasini Maniratnam and aired in India in Tamil.

This study guide uses the 1999 Black Swan edition of the novel.

Content Warning: The source text contains references to arranged marriage, abortion, and pregnancy loss. 

Plot Summary

Sister of My Heart follows the life of two Indian cousins, Anju and Sudha, who grow up as sisters in a household presided over by three widowed “mothers”: Gouri (Anju’s biological mother), Nalini (Sudha’s biological mother), and Pishi (a widowed aunt). The cousins also share their home with various servants, including Singhji, their driver; Singhji’s face is burned beyond recognition, but he is kind to the girls and loyal to the mothers, even when they can no longer afford to pay him.