Lucky Boy: A novel that will stay with you long after finishing

This is a novel that has stayed with me for days after reading the last words.

It is the story of two young women of vastly different backgrounds whose lives are joined and torn apart by Nacho, or Iggy, depending on whom is being his mother.

Lucky Boy by Shanthi Sekaran is quite outside my experience, dealing as it does with an illegal (undocumented is the term used in the book) immigrant from Mexico into California and a young Indian couple who find they are infertile. The Indian couple have both been brought up and educated in the United States and their families live nearby. That migrant experience of belonging to two worlds, as a legal immigrant, is portrayed very clearly.

It is the skill of the writer that these complex situations are given their due complexity and an empathetic treatment. I found myself on both sides as the conflict of the book escalated.

The book was sparked by the author’s interest in stories of mothers losing their children when put into detention centres or deported. Shanti Sekaran pays tribute to those who assisted her in the research on this aspect and for those who assisted with the research on infertility and adoption and fostering. She herself is of Indian migrant background and drew on her own experience for this.

Soli is a young Mexican girl in an impoverished Mexican village who dreams of a better life in the United States which she can only enter illegally. Kavya lives in Berkeley, California, has a good job a loving husband and an interfering mother. The narration of the story moves between one woman and the other. We read of Soli’s long and dangerous journey to her cousin in Berkeley, California, her discovery of her pregnancy after a very brief love affair on the road, her work with the  kindly though at times misguided Cassidys, her constant fear of discovery as an ‘undocumented’ worker ane her fierce love for her little son. We read of Kavya and Rishi’s pain as they realise they will not have a child, the treatments, the hopes and disappointments, the clutching at new hopes.

Inevitably Soli is detained and little Ignacio is taken from her. The treatment of women in detention centres makes for horrific reading. Soli’ss struggle with an unknown and complex legal system that is stacked against her is clearly explained.

Kavya and Rishi have decided to adopt, or foster, so desperate is Kavya for motherhood. Eventually, and certainly not by a smooth path, they are approved of as Ignacio’s foster parents. Their marriage undergoes some stresses as they adapt to this new role. They are under constant pressure from authorities to live up to required standards and the constant fear that Ignacio will be taken from him and returned to his biological mother.

The thing that keeps Soli going is her love for Ignacio and her determination to reclaim her boy.

There is enough tension in this book to make it a real page turner. There are enough moral dilemmas to keep the reader thinking and enough insights into the problems of a world far from our own to fascinate.

This is a well written, thoughtful book of our times. I can recommend it.

Lucky Boy by Shanthi Sekaran is available now from Dymocks. Click here to learn more.