I read “Mother Land” with my friend Kelley, in our two-woman book group. The theme for 2021 is Distant Places; two travelers reading our way through the world when circumstances keep us at home.

Two women, one kitchen; much tension.

It’s a classic recipe for a good story, one that turns out beautifully in “Mother Land,” a novel by Leah Franqui.

A few months after she marries Dhruv and moves to Mumbai from New York City, Rachel Meyer’s mother-in-law arrives from Koltata with a giant suitcase and announces she’s moving in. For good.

Ruining Rachel’s life–the story makes plain on the first page.

Just why and how Swati will ruin Rachel’s life unfolds in subsequent chapters, told alternately between Rachel’s and Swati’s points of view.

• A delightful tension emerges based on the two opposing yet honest interior narratives.
• Food, food, food: some women know how to make an Issue-with-a-capital-I out of a meal prep or kitchen counter rights or menu choices and these two are both masters. Yet thanks to Rachel’s outspoken nature, they also start applying words to their strong feelings. Swati comes from a background where feelings are not articulated. Rachel comes from a home that resembles the UN—everyone debating everything all the time. Rachel says what she thinks, often resulting in a cringe from this reader (I’m more like Swati in the feelings transparency department). But the emotional honesty is catchy. Soon Swati and Rachel are talking, arguing, seeing each other, trusting each other. And cooking together, of course.
• Out from the blades of this processor emerges the essence of two women in crisis: Rachel lost and alone in a cross-cultural marriage she is not ready for; and Swati emerging from a lifetime of following rules she suddenly—because she met Rachel—no longer believes.
• There’s a leftover portion at the end, however: after a period of struggle and a hard decision, Rachel finds a way forward. The conclusion to Swati’s story is less satisfying, however. She ends up back where she started, the only change being a weekly video chat cooking lesson with Rachel. Is that enough?

The author, Leah Franqui, is a Philadelphia raised Jewish American who lives in Mumbai and is married to a man born in Kolkata, so she knows the places and the cultures that appear in this book. The cultural tensions and human commonalities she highlights in fiction make for a satisfying reading. And make me want to take an evening walk through Mumbai.