Reviews 

If this book were a movie and if it had a soundtrack it could easily be the John Lennon song, Blackbird.
"Fix these broken wings and learn to fly All your life You were only waiting for this moment to arrive"
It is both plaintive and painful, joyous and optimistic, It swoops and soars with swift and steep descents only to lift off again: "Into the light of the dark black night".

This is an extraordinary story told by an extraordinary woman, who has experienced enough for several normal lifetimes. Starting with a comfortable life and supportive large family in Pakistan - uprooted by partition, forced to leave everything behind and begin again in India as refugees. She lets us inside her head and shares her confusion, dreams and joys as she goes through adolescence, love affairs, business and social successes, family traumas, personal tragedies, emotional and physical hardships and a glamorous life filled with fascinating people, exotic locations and amazing experiences.

Through it all she manages to find ways to make everything into a learning experience and a strengthening of her inner core, to find forgiveness and peace while still retaining a youthful vigor and zest for life which belies her seventy years. Her learning curve has been steep and I imagine that there is hardly a woman with whom much of her story will not resonate. The details might be different but this has universal truths about the inner lives of women. It is written in a very natural and personal style and is fully engaging. I read it in every free moment until the end which came too soon. I was swept along and thoroughly enjoyed the trip.