Publisher's Synopsis
It is the end of the 19th century and Johanne Nielsen is one of the few women in Denmark to complete "Filosofikum", the qualification required to join a prestigious university program in philosophy. During her studies she meets a barrister from India at a conference in Stockholm. They fall in love and marry against the wishes of Johanne's family. Johanne gives up her academic pursuits and leaves Copenhagen with her husband to arrive in Hafizabad, a small northern town in British India, and adopts the name Janaki Bai. What was it like for a young Danish woman to live among unfamiliar traditional Indian family caste structures? How did she feel as a wife and a mother in a foreign land? Nilambri Ghai revisits her grandmother's transformation - from Johanne to Janaki - and draws parallels with her own journey from India to Canada. In an epistolary style, she corresponds with Johanne and finds herself on her own journey in rediscovering her identities: Danish, Indian, and Canadian.
