Refusing to Live in Black & White
A memoir of grief, motherhood and widowhood, and the slow work of becoming whole again on one's own terms.
Refusing to be reduced to a single word
When Shaweta lost her husband during India's second wave of COVID-19, grief turned out to be only part of what she was learning to carry. Alongside it arrived a set of assumptions, particular to the culture and family she belonged to, about how a widow should look, behave, parent, work, and imagine her future.
Refusing to Live in Black & White moves between the marriage that came before and the years that followed, between memory and the present, without asking either to cancel out the other. It is a book about a son growing up, a mother who stayed, friendships that showed up in unexpected shapes, and the slow work of a mother and son building a life neither had planned for.
At its heart, this is a book about refusing to be reduced to a single word — widow — when a person is always several things at once.
“This book neither romanticises suffering nor reduces a life to theory. It simply lets personal experience and careful observation illuminate each other.”Ritu Priya · Professor (Retired), Centre of Social Medicine and Community Health, JNU
About the book
What is Refusing to Live in Black & White about?
A memoir of grief, motherhood and widowhood in the aftermath of India's second COVID-19 wave, and the work of becoming whole again on one's own terms.
Who published the book?
The book is published by Penman Books and is written in English.
Where can I buy it?
Buy directly from the author on this website, or from Amazon and Flipkart.
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