Strong read about a couple in England wishing but unable to conceive, and the varied consequences their choice to pursue surrogacy brings about. Interesting cast of secondary characters and situations in England and India propels the narrative.

Shyama is a successful businesswoman, owner of a popular beauty salon and a divorced mother of a student daughter. However Shyama wants another child with her partner Toby, a younger man, and she is told that she will not be able to have one naturally. Mala is an intelligent but impoverished Indian woman, her family died leaving little dowry and Mala's husband thinks that getting Mala to act as a surrogate for a wealthy couple will allow them live a little more comfortably. Inevitably the lives of Shyama and Mala meet as Mala becomes the surrogate for Shyama and Toby's child but as Shyama's aged parents fight to regain their investments in India and Tara, her daughter, suffers in London, Shyama is torn between her family, her culture and her ambition.

Syal is a well-known actress and her previous novels have veered towards the comedic element, this one is different. On the surface this is a story about two women, one with money and one without, but the subplots explore so much more. Tara suffers an assault in the the UK and then travels to India to support women's rights, so changing. Mala travels to the UK and flourishes, Syama's parents have to take legal action against their own family to possess what is theirs by right. The constant theme is one which compares the life and freedoms of women in the UK with those of women in India, either through caste, fertility or sexual rights, and this makes the book far more thoughtful that it initially seems. ( )

Meera Syal has become one of my favorite writers - two novels down, one to go. This one is chock full o'plot set in London and Delhi, and in the center is Shyama, daughter, mother, divorcee, and lover of the white Brit Toby, ten years younger and eager for a child. Shyama's a successful business owner, and her daughter Tara is 19 and contentious and contemptuous of her mother's effort to keep her young lover via procreation. When reality sets in after another failed IVF attempt, Shyama and Toby head to Delhi to find a surrogate to carry a donor egg and Toby's sperm. Massive complications ensue.

A very strong side plot features Shyama's parents, who have been fighting bureaucracy and corruption to reclaim their Delhi retirement home, which has been taken over by a squatter niece, and the surrogate Mala, whose tale could be its own novel.

The characters are so vivid and their inner thoughts so thoroughly rendered that I was yearning to meet and converse with them all. Syal gives the reader fly-on-the-wall status in a most satisfactory way. ( )

Shyama is divorced with a teenage daughter. Toby her new partner is a lot younger than her but they want a child together. Shyama is reaching fifty and its not easy getting pregnant so she and Toby resort to surrogacy. Mala lives in India where surrogacy is big business. Shyama, Toby and Malas lives are brought together all because of a baby.

I have read Anita and Me by Meera Syal and thought it was a very funny book and quite enjoyed it. This book drew me in straight away more than what I thought it would. It wasn't as funny as Anita and Me I think mainly because of the subject matter.

For me I think the book lost its way. I didnt see the point of the the sub plot of Shyamas parents battle over a property. I also found a couple of issues with Tara not necessary to the story. For me the book lodt its way especially towards the end. The ending was really flawed and I found quite unbelievable, but suppose it is possible.

I did finish the book so there had to be enough for me to do so. I didn't like any of the characters at all and felt they did come over very selfish at times.

Im not sure who I would recommend this book to but felt it was maybe a women's book. I can imagine the book creating a good discussion on the subject of surrogacy and its practices in India. An average read from a very funny writer. . ( )

Surrogacy in India.

I wasn't aware that surrogacy was big business in India, so this book was quite enlightening. However, although it's called The House of Hidden Mothers, we actually barely enter that house and a large part of the narrative occurs in the UK, which seemed a bit 'off-topic'.
Other characters do spend a fair bit of time in India though, and the battle to repossess the grandparents' house was unbelievably tied up with bribery and corruption, which reminded me of a book I read recently: Behind the Beautiful Forevers by Katherine Boo.

Shyama, an Indian living in UK, has a teenage daughter, Tara, from her first marriage, but is desperate to have a child with her younger partner, Toby. As she is unable to conceive, they decide to go to India and find a surrogate mother. The child is to have Toby's genes, and an egg from a donor. Mala, an impoverished village girl, is paid to carry the child for them and to do so, she must leave her village and stay in the Mothers' House.
If the story had revolved around life in the Mothers' House as we are led to expect, I think I would have enjoyed this more, but the fact that Mala travels back to the UK with Shyama and Toby just didn't ring true and I found this a less than convincing plot line, with an ultimately unsatisfying conclusion.

Towards the end there is a third thread that involves Tara becoming involved in womens' rights in a newly aware India. Although interesting, this did seem a bit unnecessary to the plot.
And why do Indian writers have to use so many Indian words, which readers in English are going to find largely unintelligible?

A reasonably enjoyable read, but recommended with reservations. ( )