I fell in love with this book. Not only was I able to learn more about a vibrant and intricate religious tradition--but I also got to hear these stories through the eyes of a strong and passionate woman. This retelling places women at the center of the epic. I was inspired by Panchaali--her fire and her determination and her loyalty and her pride--and enthralled by her complicated relationship with the men in her lifeher brother, her 5 husbands, the man she loves, secretly, more than any of them, and the god Vishnu, incarnated as Krishna. The depictions of love, war, loyalty, hate, pride, jealousy, hope, pain, gods, and human beingsin all their follyare captivating. This is the kind of work that all women should read--We are every bit the fighters and the heroes that the men in epic stories assert themselves as, as well as the glue that holds families and love together.
