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The Museum of Failures

Audiobook
1 of 2 copies available
1 of 2 copies available
The bestselling author of The Space Between Us and Reese's Book Club pick Honor delivers a powerful story about family secrets, a mother's power, and the importance of forgiveness.
Remy Wadia left India for the United States long ago, carrying his resentment of his mother with him. He has now returned to Bombay to adopt a baby from a young pregnant girl—and to see his elderly mother for the first time in several years. Discovering that his mother is in the hospital, has stopped talking, and seems to have given up on life, he is struck with guilt for not realizing just how sick she has become.
His unexpected appearance and assiduous attention revives her and enables her to return to her home. But when Remy stumbles on an old photograph, shocking long-held family secrets surface. As the secrets unravel and Remy's mother begins communicating again, he finds himself reevaluating his entire childhood, his relationship to his parents, and his harsh judgment of the decisions and events long hidden from him, just as he is on the cusp of becoming a parent himself. But most of all, he must learn to forgive others for their failures and human frailties.
Readers of Sankofa by Chibundu Onuzo, Fault Lines by Emily Itami, and Dava Shastri's Last Day by Kirthana Ramisetti will devour this story of secrets and family, a reminder that forgiveness comes from realizing that the people we love are usually trying to do their best in the most difficult situations.
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    • Kirkus

      July 15, 2023
      An Indian man living in Ohio returns to Bombay for the first time since his beloved father's death. After struggling with infertility, Remy Wadia and his wife, Kathy, have a stroke of luck: a relative of one of Remy's closest friends from childhood is pregnant and wants to give the baby up for adoption. Remy arrives in India to meet the young woman only to find she wants to keep her baby. That's not the only disappointment waiting for him. His mother, with whom he has a thorny relationship, is in the hospital fighting for her life. These events rock Remy to his core, sending him into a tailspin of grief, bewilderment, nostalgia, displacement, and guilt. At risk of losing his mother, Remy discovers a family secret that upends everything he thought he knew about her and his father, transforming the notion of the man he thought he was and wants to be. Being both at home--meaning Bombay, the city where he was born and raised--and away from home--meaning Columbus, the smaller city where he's made a life for himself as an adult--is challenging, but it offers him the opportunity to unpack the revelations from the past as well as think about what he wants for his future. Umrigar knows how to tell a story. A former journalist and the author of nine previous novels, she creates interesting characters and complex relationships, builds thematic tension and narrative suspense, and delivers emotionally resonant moments at just the right pace. The book isn't perfect. The dialogue often feels pedantic, as do some of Remy's internal soliloquies about the differences and parallels between the U.S. and India. But these shortcomings are a small price to pay for an otherwise rich, heartfelt novel. This is a touching story about what it really means to grow up and into an authentic life.

      COPYRIGHT(2023) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

    • Publisher's Weekly

      August 28, 2023
      Umrigar (Honor) returns with another rich and emotionally gripping story about familial love and the destructive power of secrets. Remy Wadia has returned from the U.S. to his hometown of Bombay for the first time since his father’s death three years earlier. Having arrived to adopt a baby from a pregnant teenager, Remy is shocked to learn that the mother-to-be is having second thoughts about giving up the child. Making matters worse, his elderly mother’s health has suddenly declined. Remy, who has a turbulent relationship with her, is guilt-ridden for having left India to settle with his American wife in Ohio. Umrigar deftly explores the complexity of caring for an aging parent as Remy stretches himself thin trying to nurse his mother back to health. Meanwhile, he’s preoccupied by grief over his beloved father. After his mother begins to recover and comes back home from the hospital, Remy tries to forgive her for verbally abusing him as a child, until one morning when a photograph falls out of his mother’s prayer book, leading to a series of revelations about Remy’s parents that change his perceptions of both of them. The story of family secrets takes on emotional resonance as Remy contends with his own anxieties about becoming a parent. Umrigar continues to impress. Agent: Gail Hochman, Brandt & Hochman Literary Agents.

    • Booklist

      Starred review from August 1, 2023
      When Remy Wadia returns to Bombay from his home in Ohio to adopt a baby and visit his mother, he learns that the baby's birth mother, Monaz, is rethinking her plan to give up her child for adoption, and discovers that his own mother, Shirin, has been hospitalized for pneumonia. These quick plot turns highlight life's unpredictability, a theme that runs through the book. As Remy learns harsh truths about his parents' choices and comes to understand how they determined the course of his life, he also gets an opportunity to define the man he wants to be. Remy's fractured relationship with his ailing mother provides a strong story arc, and his complicated love for his birth city makes for a meditative study of Bombay in its many moods. The story of the Wadia family is a sensitive exploration of love in its different forms--romantic, maternal, filial, platonic--and forgiveness. Umrigar's fluid prose and well-wrought characters capture the milieu of the Parsi community past and present. Paired with the emotionally demanding story line, this is a compelling read.

      COPYRIGHT(2023) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

    • AudioFile Magazine
      Vikas Adam gives a wonderfully affecting performance of this audiobook about almost everything--parent/child relationships, family secrets, immigration, disability, adoption, elder care, marriage, and friendship. With his gift for illuminating moments of emotional complexity, Adam immerses listeners in the complex dynamics between 30-something Remy, who returns to India from the U.S. for the first time since his father's death, and the formidable, erratic mother he remembers but who may no longer exist because of severe illness. Adam expertly inhabits each family member, friend, or hospital staff person with precision, clarity, and a generous heart. He impressively creates female and children's voices that sound natural. His excellent Indian accents and pronunciation of Parsi Gujarati words add authenticity. Adam's narrative talent shines in his perceptive performance of this winning story. M.J. © AudioFile 2023, Portland, Maine

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