The Covenant of Water

A multigenerational story set in 20th century India. The book touches on India's independence movement, but mostly focuses on the story of a 12 year old girl who marries a 40 year old window, and the family and community she helps to create in her small town.

Honestly the age gap marriage is a yikes, but with the way the widowed man is portrayed from the POV of the girl you never really get that icky feeling. (Should you? I don't know). Nonetheless she goes on to become the matriarch of the family so in that sense it is empowering (relatively speaking).

Definitely not a super uplifting novel (there's a looot of tragedy) but although this book has 700+ pages (which I didn't realise since I read on a Kindle), I really felt like a flew through this one.