When Frank and Ellie Benton lose their only child, seven-year-old
Benny, to a sudden illness, the perfect life they had built is
shattered. Filled with wrenching memories, their Ann Arbor home becomes
unbearable, and their marriage founders. But an unexpected job half a
world away offers them an opportunity to start again. Life in Girbaug,
India, holds promise--and peril--when Frank befriends Ramesh, a bright,
curious boy who quickly becomes the focus of the grieving man's
attentions. Haunted by memories of his dead son, Frank is consumed with
making his family right--a quest that will lead him down an
ever-darkening path with stark repercussions.

Filled with
satisfyingly real characters and glowing with local color, "The Weight
of Heaven" is a rare glimpse of a family and a country struggling under
pressures beyond their control. In a devastating look at cultural
clashes and divides, Umrigar illuminates how slowly we recover from
unforgettable loss, how easily good intentions can turn evil, and how
far a person will go to build a new world for those he loves.

The recent death of her beloved husband, Rustom, has taken its toll on Tehmina Sethna. Now, while visiting her son, Sorab, in his suburban Ohio home, she is being asked to choose between continuing her old life in India and starting a new one in this unfamiliar country with her son, his American wife, and their child. Her destiny is uncertain, and soon the plight of two troubled young children next door will force the most difficult decision she has ever faced. Ultimately the journey is one that Tehmina must travel alone.

At the wedding of a young man from a middle-class apartment building in Bombay, the men and women of this unique community gather together and look back on their youthful, idealistic selves and consider the changes the years have wrought. The lives of the Parsi men and women who grew up together in Wadi Baug are revealed in all their complicated humanity: Adi Patel's disintegration into alcoholism; Dosamai's gossiping tongue; and Soli Contractor's betrayal and heartbreak. And observing it all is Rusi Bilimoria, a disillusioned businessman who struggles to make sense of his life and hold together a fraying community.