Goddess of Fire

It is the 17th century. This is a very bad time to be a woman in India. Moorti husband is dead, and as is the custom, she will be burned alive on her husband’s funeral pyre. She tries to escape but her own family drags her to the fire. She is saved by a total stranger, Englishman Job Charnock, who renames her Maria and gives her employment as a servant. As she settles into her new life among the English, she chafes at her role. She longs to be more than a servant, and learns to speak English, hoping it will secure her a better position in life. This is an incredibly vivid portrait of an unforgettable woman

Goddess of Fire , Bharti Kirchner

Review from Jeannie Zelos book reviews

Genre:  Romance, Historical, Women’s fiction,

 I love books that reveal the minutiae of daily life of other cultures, and those set in historical times and here I got a good dose of both. I really enjoyed this story, fictional but based around real events and people. It kept me engrossed to the end, feeling for Moorti right from the start and just hoping things went her way in the end.

Moorti, just seventeen and about to be burned as per traditions at the time, when wives were burned alive along with their dead husbands. Its a horrible thought, Moorti hadn’t wanted to be married, and certainly didn’t want to die and yet seemed to have no way out. Just as the fire is lit though and she’s crying out for help the ship Job is on arrives and he rescues her. He takes her back to the Factory, the English trading post he runs. He’s fervently loyal to the English and yet has taken to India really well, encompassing himself in the culture where possible. He had a fascinating story that resulted in him coming to India. He arranges employment for Moorti, and changes her name to Maria. Of course he’s her hero, tall and handsome and her saviour, how could he be anything else? She desperately wants to help him succeed and she longs to be closer to him, and to be more than just another servant. She’s clever and ambitious and starts to pick up the English language. Job arranges for her to have lessons, and from there the journey that will end with them together begins. Its not a smooth journey, there are dangers, things they both have to learn and adapt to and Job isn’t always an easy person to be with. When the English shipping Fleet – single ladies looking for husbands – arrives I so felt for her. She’s got little personal belongings, worn plain saris, no beautiful adornments, and of course she’s simply a servant, regarded by most of the English as a kind of necessary but unwanted presence....set against the English ladies with their silks and jewels she thinks how can she compete? She’s scared Job will be swept up by one of them and I so felt for her here.
Its a fascinating read, mixing facts with fiction to give the reader a story that feels so real. I love the day to day events, the people we met, the way things aren’t prettied up and we see how hard daily life is for so many of the Indians, how their lives are changed by the foreigners, how their beliefs fit into what they do each day. India is in a time of change and we know what happened now, but at the time they could only guess, and do what they thought they could to protect themselves. In reality with the regions controlled by Princes there wasn’t much the average person could do expect hope.

I enjoyed seeing the way both the English and the Indians looked upon the events and of course once Maria is with Job her views are torn. She works for the English and yet she sees her countrymen suffering, and she’s so incredible that she forges a way forward to try to help both sides, at personal risk to herself much of the time. Towards the end there are some events that were heart-breaking and I really really felt for her. It seemed all her help, all her love, all the things she’d worked so hard for were for nothing. Still, there’s a twist of course, and I was fooled.  

Stars: Five, a wonderful look into history and India.
 
ARC supplied by Netgalley and publishers

 

Kirchner seeks to shed light on India during a crucial time in its history when various European countries – France, Holland, Portugal, and Britain – all aiming to make inroads and gain a monopoly on trade with the subcontinent. It’s a tale of complex politics and socio-dynamics interwoven with an unlikely romance as Maria and Job slowly fall in love.

Their first encounter comes when Job rescues a teenage Maria from being burned at her husband’s funeral pyre. Tradition and shame make it impossible for Maria to return to her parents’ village. With no other option she follows Job to become a member of his household. While working as a cook, she becomes familiar with the ins and outs of the household and with Job’s business. Not content to be just a cook, she has her mind set on learning English. She wants to use her knowledge of her new language along with her familiarity of her Indian culture to help Job’s business make progress in the community.

Maria and Job are based on real life figures. There is not much that is known about the real Maria so Kirchner has infused her with a spectacular persona that you wouldn’t normally associate with women of that era. Maria is emboldened by her past and her love for her friends and family. She values education, is incredibly resourceful and loyal. As for Job, I felt I only ever saw him at a distance so I didn't necessarily catch onto his personality or their chemistry.

Even with all this rich material and an equally rich landscape, I did have some trouble with the story mainly that it was hard to get a true sense of how much time passes between events. I was thrown off a few times when the story jumped forward a few years from one paragraph to another.

Goddess of Fire inspired me to read more about Job Charnock. It’s a complicated history entrenched in ill feeling after years of British colonization. He was initially considered the founder of Calcutta, now known as Kolkata until the 2003 ruling by the Calcutta High Court when his name was removed as founder. (His founding of the city of Calcutta is touched on in the book.) Not much is known about the nature of his relationship with Maria except that they had children. If you’re interested in learning more, this Wikipedia page is a good start.

With a somewhat blank canvas, Kirchner had the room to navigate the story to bring to life so many details and key events in India as it moved from being an independent country with its various territories, countless rulers and sub-cultures, towards the era of colonization. There’s a lot to soak up in this adventurous historical drama!

~ Bel