Homeless Bird

Homeless Bird 

by Gloria Whelan

A quick read geared towards young adults, Homeless Bird by Gloria Whelan is a simply beautiful story.  The main character, Koly, a thirteen year-old growing up in India, is the youngest of three children and the only female.  Her family is very poor and, as is custom, she is to be betrothed to a family that will take the small dowry her parents can assemble.  They finally find a match for her, but she is unable to see the future husband until the wedding day.  When she does, it is revealed that Hari, the young man, is too sick to be out of his room.  After the wedding, she learns that the family only offered him to receive money from a dowry to pay for a trip to the Gages River in an effort to cure him of his illness.  The treatment turns out to be ineffective.  After his death, Koly is treated very poorly by her new in-laws but finds a friend in Hari’s sister, Chandra. A few years later, Chandra is also married off.  Koly is taught to read and write by her father-in-law, a teacher, but her mother-in-law despises her and makes her work all day long.  A final blow to Koly is dealt when her father-in-law dies.  Koly is stuck working for the mother-in-law until she informs Koly that they will be moving away to her family’s home.  She is deceived during the trip and is left at the temple (where many old widowed women live on the streets).  She is befriended by Raji, a rickshaw boy, who leads her to a home for widowed women.  She gets a job working for an embroiderer.  Raji offers to marry her and live on a farm his uncle has left him.  What will Koly do?  Like the homeless bird, as written in a book of poems that her father-in-law had taught her about, Koly will finally find a nest in which she can be happy!  My synopsis really doesn’t do the story justice.  So worth reading!  It has Indian tradition, heartache and a happy ending!