Mother Mary Comes to Me by Arundhati Roy

A memoir like no other.

Synopsis - 

A raw and deeply moving memoir from the legendary author of The God of Small Things and The Ministry of Utmost Happiness. that traces her complex relationship with her mother, Mary Roy, a fierce and formidable force who shaped Arundhati’s life both as a woman and a writer.

Mother Mary Comes to Me, Arundhati Roy’s first work of memoir, is a soaring account, both intimate and inspirational, of how the author became the person and the writer she is, shaped by circumstance, but above all by her complex relationship to the extraordinary, singular mother she describes as “my shelter and my storm.”

“Heart-smashed” by her mother Mary’s death in September 2022 yet puzzled and “more than a little ashamed” by the intensity of her response, Roy began to write, to make sense of her feelings about the mother she ran from at age eighteen, “not because I didn’t love her, but in order to be able to continue to love her.” And so begins this astonishing, sometimes disturbing, and surprisingly funny memoir of the author’s journey from her childhood in Kerala, India, where her single mother founded a school, to the writing of her prizewinning novels and essays, through today.

With the scale, sweep, and depth of her novels, The God of Small Things and The Ministry of Utmost Happiness, and the passion, political clarity, and warmth of her essays, Mother Mary Comes to Me is an ode to freedom, a tribute to thorny love and savage grace.

Review - 

Wow, this book was an eye-opener.  I live in a very diverse area with people of many cultures in my world, but this memoir still surprised me. Reading it brought home what it was like growing up in another culture, in another country.  The author shared her childhood and life beyond with a brutal honestly that at times jarred. She shared in a way that made me feel I was there beside her experiencing the same things.  

Her early was what I would call with my western mindset traumatic with a capital T. I would define her childhood as filled with abuse. Traditional love was not offered, and criticism doled out constantly. And yet it is clear her mother was a trailblazer and a feminist at a time and in a place where that was exceptional. The author was given the view of what she as a woman was capable of, and the rights she deserved as a woman. She learned very early she could stand on her own and not be bound by the expectations of society. 

As a published author (absolutely not on this author's level) I found it amazing that, while she wrote scripts, essays and nonfiction, when she turned her mind to writing her first novel, it took 4 years to finish (her second took 10 years). That it became an international best seller was an unexpected surprise that threw her into a world she was unprepared for. One line she shared while talking about political unrest hit me as it mirrored what I am seeing and hearing in the world today, "A new public language, previously unacceptable, suddenly became acceptable." The parallel is undeniable.  Who would have thought people could say and do the terrible things they are doing without anyone objecting?

This is a fascinating read for anyone who wants to learn about other cultures, experience the history of another country, and read about a truly unique life journey.  I put her first novel - The God of Small Things - next on my reading list. How could I not?

Buy the Book :  Amazon US ~ Amazon CAN

Meet the Author - 

Read a really fab interview HERE -

Arundhati Roy is an Indian author and political activist, born on November 24, 1961, in Shillong, India, and studied architecture in Delhi where she how lives. She is a prominent voice for human rights and social justice issues. Roy has written numerous essays, screenplays, and other non-fiction works. She is the author of a number of books, including The God of Small Things, which won the Booker Prize in 1997 and has been translated into more than forty languages.. She has also written several non-fiction books, including Field Notes on Democracy, Walking with the Comrades, Capitalism: A Ghost Story, The End of Imagination, and most recently Things That Can and Cannot Be Said, co-authored with John Cusack. Roy is the recipient of the 2002 Lannan Foundation Cultural Freedom Prize, the 2011 Norman Mailer Prize for Distinguished Writing, and the 2015 Ambedkar Sudar award.