India, May 10 -- We are lying on a mattress in the garden, the long grass tickling our bare toes, the mountain sun warming our backs. Ahead of us, up on a deodar tree, a glossy blue-black Himalayan crow perches, its raucous call a familiar interruption in the stillness of the afternoon.

"Give me a book like Mother Mary Comes to Me. I want something that's well written. Or like the book you gave me before my trip to China-Once Upon a Time in the East," she says.

Both these are mother-daughter books : Mother Mary Comes to Me by Arundhati Roy is the most powerful mother daughter book I have ever read, a book so searing, so exquisitely written, it's unforgettable. And Once Upon a Time in The East by Xiaolu Guo Guo is as powerful in a differ...