Uma Parameswaran's earlier works have earned her praise and awards. "What was Always Hers" won the Jubilee Award for the best collection of short stories published in 1999. Of the title story, that appeared earlier as "The Sweet Smell of Mother's Milk-Wet Bodice," reviewers had this to say: "A deftly wrought novella possessing the quiet elegance born of outrage."(The Globe and Mail)

"Uma Parameswaran has written with the insight and lyricism of the fine poet she is." June Callwood

"It is activist literature, woman-empowering fiction, and it has a political edge." (Herizons)

Of her...

"What I found most enjoyable about this novel is that it steers clear of stereotypes about Indian immigrant families. The Bhaves and the Moghes are refreshingly different from some families that inhabit the world of diasporic fiction. There are no daughters being threatened with arranged marriages, no authoritarian parents, and no weepy sentimentality about the land left behind."-(Nalini Iyer, on SAWNET Book Pages)

"This is the story of two families that not only dive deep into dangerous waters, but surface and live to tell the tale."-(Michelle Reale in "Rain Taxi Online")

"A hymn to the...