From the opening passages of The Storyteller’s Secret I was transfixed by author Sejal Badani’s ability to infuse beauty into tragedy. A woman, undone by a third miscarriage and the fracture of her marriage, embarks on a journey of familial self-discovery.

Still grieving her loss, Jaya travels alone to India to find answers—about her history, healing, and the dream of motherhood. Along the way she meets Ravi, her grandmother’s confidant, who reveals just how resilient and amazing Amisha was. Jaya finds an ancient picture of Amisha in a shoebox, and it seems to show her straining to see something in the distance. “Your grandmother believed photographs hid the truth about a person, offering only an illusion instead,” Ravi tells her. “I am sure she would have thought differently if she had known a picture was all that would be left to remember her by.”

As the novel unfolded with Jaya’s present-day pursuit of the truth captured by the photograph, and as she discovered more about Amisha’s life in British-occupied India in the 1930s, I found myself swept away by Jaya’s emotional transformation. Watching Jaya dig up family secrets that set her life on a new course, I realized we’ve all been at the crossroads, wondering which way to turn. As Jaya fleshes out her grandmother’s life, the next steps on her path are lit with a thousand suns. We should all be so lucky as to uncover a legacy of strength, right when we need it.