In Mother Mary Comes to Me, Arundhati Roy marks the passing of her late mother by fathoming her on the page for the first time. “I wrote versions of her in my books”, Roy explains, “but I never wrote her.”

Doing so is difficult, even painful for Roy because of who her mother was and how she mothered. To her students, Mrs Roy was a committed headmistress who left a legacy of learning. To her country, Mary Roy was a tireless advocate for Syrian Christians, whose landmark legal case in India’s supreme court set precedents for women’s inheritance rights.

But as a parent to two children, Roy tells us, Mrs Roy was mercurial and stubborn. A bundle of contradictions, she compelled her daughter to think and be free, only to then rage against her for the thoughts she had and the freedoms she claimed.

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