ENGLISH

BOOK REVIEW

THE MOTHER I NEVER KNEW

SUDHA MURTY

ADITYA .P. KUMAR

10 - C
ROLL NO.3
ABOUT THE AUTHOR –
Sudha Murty was born in 1950 in Shiggaon in north Karnataka.
She did her M.Tech in computer science, and is now the
chairperson of the Infosys Foundation. A prolific writer in
English and Kannada, she has written nine novels, four technical
books, three travelogues, one collection of short stories, three
collections of non-fiction pieces and two books for children. Her
books have been translated into all the major Indian languages
and have sold over three lakh copies around the country. She
was the recipient of the R.K. Narayan Award for Literature and
the Padma Shri in 2006.

GENRE –
Fiction

BIBLIOGRAPHY –
PUBLISHER – PENGUIN BOOKS INDIA
‘The Mother I Never Knew’ comprises of two stories that
explore two quests by two different men, Venkatesh and
Mukesh - both for mothers they never knew they had.

Venkatesh’s story starts in Bangalore where he lives with

his family that comprises of a super-rich wife and two
children. It is not until he is transferred to Hubli that he
meets a look alike and comes to know the shocking truth
about his father’s first marriage. As he is made aware of
the injustices that have been done to his step-mother, he
realises that he must make the wrongs done by his father
right, but how? Will his family support him?

The second story in the book is about Mukesh whose life

is turned upside down by the presence of not one but
several mother figures. As he journeys from London to
Bangalore to Amritsar and onwards to Delhi, he comes
to know the truth about his birth, of how he was adopted
as a child. How will he come to terms with the fact that he
was abandoned by the mother who gave birth to him?
What of the mother who raised him as he was her own
son and never once let him feel that he was not a family
member? Who is his real mother?
The Mother I Never Knew is a poignant, dramatic book
that reaches deep into the human heart to reveal what we
really feel about those closest to us and makes us feel that
the story is real but there is a flaw in the story – the author
adds a an element borrowed from typical Bollywood
movie which makes it a little bad. But overall it is a very
well-written book.