This multi-layered story set against the 1947 partition of India and Pakistan absorbs, edifies and involves the reader on so many different levels. It’s a fascinating historical perspective on how societies and communities were torn asunder when India was seemingly randomly split across geographical and religious lines. It’s an engrossing cultural study of different religions and practices. It’s also an intimate portrait of a marriage involving three people – a successful Sikh landowner, his strong-willed and opinionated first wife and his young, idealistic and somewhat bewildered second wife. Tying these myriad strands together is the informing presence and resonance of the title, as “What the Body Remembers” spans everything from the connections between mothers and children and husbands and wives, to what a body such as a country or community retains or does not when it is broken apart … and even that idea takes on a striking literal form during the book’s explosive and unforgettable ending.