The Story Hour -- Thrity Umrigar

<p><strong>"Thrity Umrigar has an uncanny ability to look deeply into the human heart and find the absolute truth of our lives. <em>The Story Hour</em> is stunning and beautiful. Lakshmi and Maggie will stay with readers for a very long time." -- Luis Alberto Urrea, author of <em>The Hummingbird's Daughter</em></strong></p><p><strong>From the critically beloved, bestselling author of <em>The World We Found</em> and <em>The Space Between U</em>s, whom the <em>New York Times Book Review</em> calls a "perceptive and . . . piercing writer," comes a profound, heartbreakingly honest novel about friendship, family, secrets, forgiveness, and second chances.</strong></p><p>An experienced psychologist, Maggie carefully maintains emotional distance from her patients. But when she meets a young Indian woman who tried to kill herself, her professional detachment disintegrates. Cut off from her family in India, Lakshmi is desperately lonely and trapped in a loveless marriage to a domineering man who limits her world to their small restaurant and grocery store.</p><p>Moved by her plight, Maggie treats Lakshmi in her home office for free, quickly realizing that the despondent woman doesn't need a shrink; she needs a friend. Determined to empower Lakshmi as a woman who feels valued in her own right, Maggie abandons protocol, and soon doctor and patient have become close friends.</p><p>But while their relationship is deeply affectionate, it is also warped by conflicting expectations. When Mag