The Pomegranate King by Nishta J. Mehra

The Pomegranate King Reviews

• 
  Jacob

  This is a beautifully written book and one that resonated with me very much. Nishta Mehra offers profound, relatable, and deeply touching truths about death & grief. She also writes in a nuanced and elegant way about the complexities of living with different identities: in her case as an American from the south, as the child of upper-middle class Indian immigrants, raised Hindu but who went to a private Christian school, and as a queer woman. This is ostensibly a book of essays but reads more like a memoir. It made me cry three times. All the feels.
  
  I hope to see more of her writing!
• 
  Neela

  
  Interview with the author and
  excerpt in The Aerogramme
• 
  Kelly

  I just loved this book. Her discussion of growing up, being with her parents in India dealing with her dad's death... It all just got to me. Beautiful.
• 
  bsolt

  DISCLAIMER: I received this book for free through Goodreads First Reads.
  
  An absolutely phenomenal collection of essays. Rating – 5/5 stars!
  
  As some reviewers have mentioned, I am saddened I did not pick this book up when I first received it from the author. All that time, I have a collection of well written, powerfully delivered, and thought provoking essays right on my bookshelf. I have not read a book with this level of profound insight to life, death, identity, and belief since Wave by Sonali Deraniyagala. It amazes me how the written word can tell me of the emotions of the author, and further allows me to experience those emotions right along side.
  
  I want to commend Nishta Mehra on her courage to put herself in full – identity, experiences, grief, belief – on paper for others to engage. My favorite essays include:
  
  Stronger Than Death
  
  An amazing illustration about how relationships can transcend the very social constructs we have created – age, religion, race, experiences.
  
  Mixed
  
  An essay that spoke directly to my experiences and the struggles I had with my own cultural identity growing up.
  
  River of Language
  
  I love the inspiration behind this essay – recording sounds of experiences. I also love reading about how different folks grapple with a pluralistic view of spiritual identities.
  
  Those three are by far my favorite essays AND I do not want to diminish the others. The entire book was spectacular. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in non-fictional literature.
  
• 
  Leigh

  I'm so mad at myself for lollygagging on this one, which I received as a First Reads giveaway, but I'm also slightly sad now that I'm done reading it. What a beautiful book, told by a natural storyteller. Mehra's writing on grief and loss, family and identity, are more thoughtful and inspiring than a shelf full of dumb self-help.
  
  I would have liked to read more about her food and cooking, her relationship and motherhood, but I'm glad the essays in this book are tightly centralized around the heavier themes. It keeps them from meandering, and demonstrated that Mehra is in fact a writer, a good one at that, and not just a blogger who put some posts together into a book.
  
  Hers may be the first ever blog I check out after reading the book. I'm definitely craving more, after The Pomegranate King's wonderful introduction.
• 
  Courtney

  There's a reason both of the reviews on the back of this book use the adjective luminous to describe it. To borrow a phrase from my students, "They stole my word!" This book is a gift, one I've already passed on to three people I hold dear so that they can have the joy of these essays, too. Nishta is a generous writer, sharing herself and her experiences freely, and never in a way that feels narcissistic (as some memoirs tend to be). The essays in this collection get at the things that are hard to talk about and make the reader say, "Yes, this."
  
  Everyone should read this book. Really.