59. Trail of Broken Wings by Sejal Bedani

listened to on Audible
2015 Lake Union Publishing
377 pgs.
Adult CRF
Finished 9/25/2017 (my 46th wedding anniversary)
Goodreads rating:  3.94 - 28,501 ratings
My rating: 4
Setting: contemporary Palo Alto, CA

My comments:  Beautifully read by Karen Peakes, the story is told by four women - a mother and her three daughters, as they reflect upon their lives and the different paths they've had to take because of the now-comatose father's abuse.  Four different stories, actually five if you include the granddaughter's, which is told by her mother.  Women deeply damaged by one man, and now, finally, discovering how to heal.  There's a  little bit too much philosophizing, but as I listened to this on a 16-hour drive, I didn't mind too, too much.  Great setting: contemporary Palo Alto, California.  An interesting, character-driven story, and an opportunity to watch and think about four very different relationships with one difficult man.

Goodreads synopsis: When her father falls into a coma, Indian American photographer Sonya reluctantly returns to the family she’d fled years before. Since she left home, Sonya has lived on the run, free of any ties, while her soft-spoken sister, Trisha, has created a perfect suburban life, and her ambitious sister, Marin, has built her own successful career. But as these women come together, their various methods of coping with a terrifying history can no longer hold their memories at bay.
          Buried secrets rise to the surface as their father—the victim of humiliating racism and perpetrator of horrible violence—remains unconscious. As his condition worsens, the daughters and their mother wrestle with private hopes for his survival or death, as well as their own demons and buried secrets. 
          Told with forceful honesty, Trail of Broken Wings reveals the burden of shame and secrets, the toxicity of cruelty and aggression, and the exquisite, liberating power of speaking and owning truth.