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Reviewed by Robert A. Groves for Readers' Favorite
Unburdened Fulfillment by Manju Mohapatra follows Uma, a widow who lost her husband to COVID-19. As she copes with her grief, she starts to rebuild a family from people whom the world abandoned. Uma takes in a cousin’s widow and son, raises a child orphaned by war, and finds an aunt her family hid from her. Uma’s home in Washington, D.C. is the story’s main setting, and Uma is the household’s anchor. Each person comes to her already carrying a loss. Rather than sending them away, Uma takes them in. Of all the people who were helped, Zara's circumstances were the most touching. Imagine the fear a child must feel when her entire family is lost to the brutality of war. Likewise, imagine the relief when strangers come to your aid and offer you a safe refuge. As you read and savor each person’s tale and their intersection with Uma, you will laugh, smile, and occasionally cry.
The stories of Uma’s rebuilt family span three wars and two continents. The entire premise of Unburdened Fulfillment is that one can get past loss when there are opportunities to form new relationships. These relationships allow people to give freely to others who have no claim on you. Readers will experience one saved person reaching out to save the next and keeping the door open. The moving timeline from present to past and back sometimes lost me. However, if you keep in mind that the book is a collection of separate stories about two women, Uma and Zara, it will be easier to follow. Among all its strengths, the novel delivers the most by portraying how two women who have experienced the tremendous loss of loved ones overcome adversity to become a light for others. Manju Mohapatra has provided us with a tale that shows the goodness in people at a time when some of us might be doubting that. I highly recommend Unburdened Fulfillment.
