I’m speechless! This was so brave, painful and beautiful!

Lies and Other Love Languages by Sonali Dev    

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

The story switches between three people, and between the past and now.

Vandy Guru loves her daughter Mallika so much it’s terrifying. Vandy is a successful advice columnist. She’s been married to the love of her life Vir, who died a year ago. On the surface Vandy is coping, inside she’s dying from grief.

Rani Parekh had been twelve when her mother died and she was sent from Bombay to her aunt in Los Angeles. Her mother had been a classical kathak dancer. Alcohol had been her nemesis. Rani and Vandy become best friends through quite heart breaking circumstances. The picture of Rani trying to find a safe space in the concrete jungle of LA, unlike the markets of Bombay is vivid.

Mallika is a choreographer. She currently is trying to organize the Aunties in dances for two weddings on the same weekend. Very trying! Mallika’s also waiting to hear from a Bollywood movie director about her presentation of dances for an up and coming movie.

Mallika, unlike her mother, views life through a pessimistic lens. Her father Vir helped her with this but now he’s not here. Mallika is not brave, is not a force of nature like her mother and aunties. She often wonders if it’s because she doesn’t have aqualine nose that goes with the Mehta genes. Mallika has her father’s nose.

There is so many parts to this tale, yet Dev brings it all together with masterful panache.

When Mallika doesn’t answer her mother’s phone calls the mystery, the story of these intertwine lives unravels, and it’s amazing. It’s friendship that goes beyond the norm.

A stellar read!

A Lake Union ARC via NetGalley.                                              

Many thanks to the author and publisher.