The Secret Daughter and Spiced Sourdough
A book about motherhood spanning two countries, and a spiced, savory loaf of sourdough
Hello and welcome to Good Book/Good Bread! I stumbled upon this book in the used section of my local bookstore, and was engaged from the first few pages. I hadn’t read anything by Shilpi Somaya Gowda before The Secret Daughter, and I love finding a book by an author I wasn’t familiar with, and then finding out that they have written lots of books! For various reasons, I haven’t been baking as much bread recently, and making the sourdough loaves for this issue was a real reminder of how enjoyable it is. It’s been very mild in Revelstoke and the skiing hasn’t been great, so I spent a lovely afternoon on an otherwise grey day creating this spice-filled sourdough recipe! Enjoy!
Good Book: The Secret Daughter by Shilpi Somaya Gowda (2010)
In a nutshell
The Secret Daughter is a work of fiction about two mothers. Somer is a physician working in San Francisco and newly married to her Indian American husband. She has just discovered that she can’t have children, and is consumed with grief. Kavita lives in a rural village in India and hasn’t been able to give her husband a son, bringing on harsh treatment from him and her in-laws. When Kavita gives up a newborn daughter to an orphanage in Mumbai, baby Asha ends up being adopted by Somer and her husband in the US. The book follows Somer and Kavita, who don’t know each other but are forever connected, as they experience motherhood across the world from each other. It also explores Asha’s experience of struggling with her identity and feeling disconnected from Indian culture until she lives for a few months in Mumbai during university.
Structure
The Secret Daughter is told in third person, alternating between chapters that focus on Kavita, Somer, and Asha.
This book in three words:
Intimate, heartbreaking, introspective
Three things I liked about The Secret Daughter
1. Doesn’t tie things up perfectly
While reading this book, I hoped the book would end in a particular way that would satisfy much of the discomfort the characters experienced. It would have been the crowd-pleasing and expected way to end the book. Somaya Gowda instead ends it in a way that isn’t necessarily clean or expected, but it makes it feel a lot more like real life. Many scenes in The Secret Daughter touch on the complexity and tension experienced in families, and the ending represented that theme well.
2. Shows disconnect between a mother and child
One consistent theme in this book was the distance that seemed to exist between Somer and her adopted daughter, Asha. The author seemed to focus more on Somer’s experience of this, and how hard it was for her to relate to or find common ground with her daughter. This made for a particularly interesting plot point because Somer had gone to great lengths to adopt Asha after her infertility challenges. I don’t think I’ve read another book that focuses on a mother not feeling like she can bond with her child, and it was an interesting element to see how both characters grow and eventually come together.
3. Social commentary is empathetic
There are several cultural and social issues that inform the plot of this book, most notably the traditional preference for sons over daughters in India. I found Somaya Gowda was able to avoid proselytizing in her writing, and instead showed how painful this reality was for the characters in their reactions and actions.
If you like The Secret Daughter, read this:
The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri
Good Bread: Sourdough with turmeric, coriander and garam masala
Why this bread for this book?
When Asha travels to India for the first time as part of a university fellowship, she is overwhelmed the spices and flavours of the food. So much of Asha’s experience of Mumbai is around food and discovering the intricacies and delights of traditional dishes. I wanted to bake a bread that highlighted many of the spices mentioned, and thought garam masala, ground coriander, and turmeric would make a delicious and beautiful loaf of sourdough.
Recipe
I followed The Kitchn’s sourdough recipe as a base. Then at the third turn of the dough, I added:
1 tbsp turmeric
1 tbsp garam masala
1/2 tbsp ground coriander
This seems like a lot of each spice when you are measuring them out, but this recipe makes two substantial sized loaves, and it ended up being a perfect amount. You could taste the flavours in the baked bread, but they didn’t overwhelm.
Looking forward
Book I’m looking forward to reading: Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt
Bread I’m looking forward to baking: Cinnamon raisin sourdough
Music I’m looking forward to listening to: Waxahatchee, Right Back To It
The pairing of books and bread is a delightful way of sharing both. It’s been a while since I baked sourdough, and I’ve never made a spiced version, so this will be fun to try (luckily it’s not yet too hot here in Southern California!). I’m also adding the book to my TBR list. Thanks for both!
I love this review and your bread. It looks absolutely divine and I want to make it immediately, even though it’s still summer where I live and too warm for baking bread. I would love to see a photo of where you live one day.