Featuring a new introduction and afterword, this critically acclaimed novel tells the story of India and its people through the eyes of one woman and her experiences in one peasant family in a primitive Indian village. Married as a child bride to a tenant farmer she has never seen, she works side by side in the field with her husband to wrest a living from the land that is ravaged by droughts, monsoons, and insects. With remarkable fortitude and courage, she seeks to meet changing times and fight poverty and disaster. She sees one of her infants die from starvation, her daughter becomes a prostitute, and her sons leave the land for jobs which she distrusts. And, somehow, she survives. This beautiful and eloquent story tells of a simple peasant woman in a primitive village in India whose whole life was a gallant and persistent battle to care for those she loved -- an unforgettable novel that will wring your heart out.