The Family Took Shape
CBC Books | CBC | Posted: March 16, 2017 5:01 PM | Last Updated: March 16, 2017
Shashi Bhat
When Mira Acharya's father dies, the challenges facing her Indo-Canadian family become that much more daunting. Ravi, her autistic older brother, requires special care but longs to be just like other children. Their mother must work full time to keep a roof over their heads and still make time to be a parent to an over-achiever and a developmentally challenged child. As much as Mira loves her mother and brother, she resents the situations in which living with them places her. It is only when Mira is older that she realizes a truth she has been missing all along: though her family's experience may be unusual, what holds them together — has always held them together — is universal. Shashi Bhat's debut novel, The Family Took Shape, is a touching, hilarious, and endearingly honest story about one unique family's search for happiness in Canadian suburbia. (From Cormorant Books)
From the book
For Mira's sixth birthday, her brother Ravi drew a picture of her, pressing so hard the paper warped with the side of his hand. He coloured so darkly the page looked wet, and the markers he used dried out, so a quarter of the drawing faded into pastels. When he gave her the drawing, she said thank you, though she was upset he's ruined the set of markers they shared. She herself would never have coloured that way; she coloured gently, using only a light pressure.
From The Family Took Shape by Shashi Bhat ©2013. Published by Cormorant Books.