The Selector of Souls

by Shauna Singh Baldwin

I had read a previous book by this author, the Tiger Claw, about an Indian woman who is a spy during WWII.  I enjoyed that book so I thought I would enjoy this book.

Selector of Souls is about two women living in the Himalyan region of India.  One of the women, Anu, is from a wealthy family.  She is abused by her husband and wants to leave him and become a Catholic Nun.  She was born Hindu but a priest saved her life and her father had her baptized Catholic. The other woman Damini, is poor.  Her husband died when she was very young and she has been forced to work as a servant to survive.

Anu leaves her husband, but, before he leaves him she ships her young daughter off to her cousin in Canada so that her husband won't have custody of her.

Both women end up in the same village.  Anu has trained to become a nurse and is working in a hospital.  Damini has become a midwife.  Damini is haunted by the fact that she killed a granddaughter of hers, a newborn baby, because neither the child's mother or father wanted her because she was a girl.  Damini is taking women for ultrasounds and urging them to abort girls.

Anu meets up with Anu and is shocked at what Damini is doing.

While these two are working in the village there are a number of side stories taking place:
- Anu's cousin has been unable to have a child, despite invitro fertilization and other measures,
- A couple, children of a woman who was Damini's employer, have come to the village and have helped build a church and the hospital where Anu works, but they also want to build subdivisions for rich and tourist Indians.  They want to have a son.
- Anu's husband who has been trying to find her, gets Damini's son involved in a religious movement and these zealots destroy the church and the priest is accidentally killed.
- Damini's son should be supporting her but he doesn't have enough money to do so, he rapes a local low caste woman.  The daughter-in-law of Damini's former employer has a baby girl but she is so desparate for a boy that she tries to steal the boy.  Damini has to arrange for this child to be given up for adoption as the mother cannot afford another child and her husband won't accept him because he is the product of rape.

After the death of the priest, for which Anu feels responsible, she leaves the convent and gets a job as a nurse in a hospital. The book ends with Anu nursing her ex-husband who had been injured in an accident.  She has found out that he is beating his second wife.  She decides to kill him.

This was a very difficult book to read.  I was so sad and angry about the way people rejected girls and the harshness of the lives of the women.  It was also difficult to see how the caste structure functions, e.g. only low caste people cut the cord on a newborn, or scrub the toilets.  The Hindu's believe in reincarnation.  It makes you wonder what kind of life these women will be reborn into.  Anu realizes that if she kills her husband she will likely have to face him in her next life.

This is the second book I have read about the tyrannical treatment of women, I have had enough of this for now.  I have to read something fun or light.