the journey of a mother book summary

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The true story behind Rani Mukherjee’s latest film ‘Mrs Chatterjee vs Norway’

The movie is based on the story of sagarika chatterjee, an indian mother of two, whose children were taken away from her by the norwegian child welfare services citing habits that are commonplace in indian society..

Rani Mukherjee returns to the big screen with the film ‘Mrs Chatterjee vs Norway’, set to be released on March 17 this year. The trailer of the film was launched on February 23 and has generated a lot of buzz around the movie, which is based on the real-life story of an Indian woman defiantly standing up to the Norwegian government to reunite with her children.

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What had happened? We take a look at the decade-old case and the journey of a mother to move nation-states for the sake of her children .

New beginnings in Norway turn sour

Sagarika Chakraborty married geophysicist Anurup Bhattacharya and the couple moved to Norway in 2007. A year later, Sagarika would give birth to Abhigyaan, the couple’s first child, who soon showed signs of autism. Thus, in 2010, Abhigyaan would be put in a family kindergarten where he would receive specific care, especially as by this time, Sagarika was pregnant again, with her soon-to-be-born daughter Aishwarya.

Tragedy struck in 2011 when the Norwegian Child Welfare Services, known as the Barnevernet (literally: ‘child protection’) took both Aishwarya and Abhigyaan away from their parents, to be kept at a foster home till they turned 18. Supposedly the couple had been “under observation’’ for months for what Barnevernet termed ‘improper parenting’.

Allegations against the couple included sleeping on the same bed as their children, hand feeding (which was seen by Norwegian authorities as force-feeding) and also corporal punishment (Sagarika had allegedly slapped the children once). While these things might seem “normal” in the Indian context, for the Norwegian authorities, it was anything but that.

Notably, Norway does have extremely strict laws regarding children and their upbringing and these laws are universally implemented, regardless of cultural differences.

The long battle for custody which turned into a diplomatic row

What followed is an over-a-year-long tussle for custody of her children, during which Norwegian authorities claimed that she was ‘mentally unfit’ to raise two children – Sagarika herself was in her late twenties at the time and was not known to be particularly organised or punctual, something that authorities used against her.

This story soon captured the attention of both the Norwegian as well as Indian media – with many highly critical of Barnevernet’s actions. Some went as far as to call it a “ state-sponsored kidnapping ”. The issue was that not only did Barnevernet appear to be culturally unaware regarding Indian parenting, but they also seemed to be personally attacking the mother to strengthen their own case.

Berit Aarset from Human Rights Alert Norway, which has repeatedly spoken about the impunity with which Barnevernet acts, said this about the case: “This is not the first time such a thing is happening in Norway … the legal system favours the Child Welfare Services and they do what they want all the time … in almost every case they say one of the parents has a mental problem just to make their case strong”.

With increasing publicity came diplomatic pressure . Then External Affairs Minister SM Krishna met his Norwegian counterpart in Oslo to seek a compromise on the matter and after lengthy negotiations, it was decided that the children’s custody will be awarded to a paternal uncle back in India , the 27-year-old dentist Arunabhas Bhattacharya.

Another battle for custody

The Norwegian Child Welfare Services handed the two children over to their uncle and grandfather in Kulti near Asansol, West Bengal in April 2012. While this was a welcome development, the battle for custody was not yet over. The draining fight with Norwegian authorities had taken its toll on Sagarika and Anurup’s marriage. Sagarika now faced a fight for custody of the two children back in India.

She approached the Burdwan Child Welfare Committee for custody of her children. While this committee gave a verdict in Sagarika’s favour , the police did not enforce it, leaving the children with their uncle and grandfather. In December 2012, Sagarika approached the Calcutta High Court.

In January 2013, Justice Dipankar Dutta ruled that Sagarika should get custody of the two children while allowing their uncle and grandfather to have visitation privileges. “It should be painful for the uncle and grandfather but they should accept it for the larger interest. They had taken care of the children according to requirement,” said Dutta.

In 2022, Sagarika Chakraborty’s autobiography, “The Journey Of A Mother” was published. The upcoming film is based on this book, with Rani playing Sagarika’s character.

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The Journey Of A Mother Paperback – May 31 2022

Purchase options and add-ons.

• ISBN-10 9393757615
• ISBN-13 978-9393757616
• Publication date May 31 2022
• Language English
• Dimensions 13.97 x 1.78 x 21.59 cm
• Print length 276 pages
• See all details

Product details

• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Vishwakarma Publications (May 31 2022)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Paperback ‏ : ‎ 276 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 9393757615
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-9393757616
• Item weight ‏ : ‎ 243 g
• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 13.97 x 1.78 x 21.59 cm
• #58,792 in Biographies & Memoirs (Books)
• #91,234 in Textbooks

About the author

Sagarika chakraborty.

Author Sagarika Chakraborty was born and raised in Kolkata India. This is her new journey to establish herself as an author.

The story is based on her real-life where she shares her own experiences. The book is focused on conspiracy and the unlawful practices of child welfare in western countries, stealing children from their innocent parents. The soon-to-be, major motion picture titled ''Mrs. Chatterjee vs Norway'' is based on this book. One of the best actresses in Indian movies, Mrs. Rani Mukherjee, is playing her character beautifully in this movie. The dramatic unraveling case had been most well-known as a ''Bhattacharya's child custody row''. She is now a single mother of two beautiful children. She migrated to Norway after marriage where she decided to settle with her husband but she lost her two babies who were abducted by the child welfare personnel and placed in foster care until 18 years old. After a prolonged debacle, she is back to her normal life and settled here as a software development engineer with her two kids in her hometown. The story will encourage all the women who are struggling in their life.

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Description

The Journey Of A Mother Is Based On Author’s Real Life Where She Shared Her Own Experiences And Conspiracy And Unlawful Practices Of Child Welfare In Western Countries. The Real Journey Of A Woman’s Life Through An Emotionally Challenging Marriage, Settling In A New Country And Her Children Being Taken Away From Her By The Foreign Government, And Then The Long Fight To Get Her Children Back, Is Narrated In The Book. The Dramatic Unravelling Case Had Been Most Well-known As A “Bhattacharya’s Child Custody Row”. The Upcoming Bollywood Movie ‘Mrs. Chatterjee Vs. Norway’ Will Be Based On This Story.

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Finding the Mother Tree by Suzanne Simard review – a journey of passion and introspection

A root-and-branch study of the network that sustains our forests shows how all life is interconnected

O ur relationship with the natural world is balanced on a knife-edge, which means our own lives, too, are facing an uncertain future. For the first time in history, we can draw from a compendium of scientific research that not only warns us to take better care of the Earth, but shows us how to do so. Yet still we place obstacles in our path, and the eco-apocalyptic countdown continues. What is it that stops us from taking action? Einstein once suggested that imagination is more important than knowledge, claiming that knowledge is limited while “imagination encircles the world”, and perhaps this is where the answer lies. In order to bridge the emotional chasm between the science and our ability to act, we must take what we know and reshape it into something more palatable. We must tell ourselves a story.

In Finding the Mother Tree , Suzanne Simard demonstrates how storytelling can ignite something science alone cannot. Her research in underground tree communication through a “wood wide web” of mycorrhizal fungi will be familiar to readers of Peter Wohlleben’s The Hidden Life of Trees and Robert Macfarlane’s Underland , while one of the characters in Richard Powers’s The Overstory was heavily inspired by Simard’s life and work in forest ecology. The author takes us through her career in the forests of North America, working on plantations to identify links between crop yields, herbicide use and species diversity. In carrying out these initial studies, she goes on to discover that trees communicate underground through a complex web of fungi, and at the centre of this web, an individual known as the “mother tree” helps to coordinate a powerful network that heals, feeds and sustains the other members of the forest.

The strength of this story isn’t only in the discoveries she makes, although they are so fascinating it would be easy to dismiss them as fantasy. In fact, she recalls how some members of her profession almost laughed her out of the room on first hearing her findings, not helped by the fact that she was a woman in a male-dominated field, trying to convince a room full of foresters that their age-old methods were flawed. Throw in a theory about interconnected roots and spores in the soil, and you can’t help but be impressed by her courage – but therein lies the magic of this book. This is science in action, from beginning to end, and so much more than a study published in a journal.

We learn not only how her ideas first formed, but how they were shaped by her own life events. In the same way Robin Wall Kimmerer ’s Braiding Sweetgrass weaves together ecology and the human spirit, Simard shows us that scientific study is not just statistics and conferences, but a journey of passion and introspection that relies on the organic nature of the human mind just as much as the meticulousness of experimentation. We learn, too, that it is possible to shake off the ingrained beliefs with which we grow up. Simard’s ancestry is rooted in the outdoors, yet she recognises that the old ways of working with the land must evolve and change, not allowing cultural biases to influence her, and listening instead to what the forest tells her.

At times, her honesty is painful to recollect. One chapter recalls her early days in the field, when she was asked to test how different solutions of herbicide impacted crop yields. Her beautiful description of how she sprays glyphosate over the native plant life, knowingly poisoning the land in order to prove something she already knows, reminds us of the complexities of conservation, even today. In order to change the game, she must first play by the rules, and it is this determination that makes her story so compelling. Time after time, she is blocked by other foresters and ecologists, bureaucracy and red tape, yet with quiet perseverance she continues her research and builds resilience.

Alongside her forestry work, we gain insights into Simard’s friendships, relationships, marriage, motherhood and her recent breast cancer. Her talent as a writer enables her to draw these events into her story, so that seemingly disconnected experiences become woven seamlessly into her working life. In studying the relationships between the trees, air, earth and everything in between, she reflects on her own relationships, not only with other people but with the trees themselves. This interconnectivity is at the core of her writing.

Finding the Mother Tree is the kind of story we need to be telling, a new way of communicating that the world desperately needs to hear. The idea of spirituality in science may seem paradoxical to some, but as we have learned from ecologists like Simard and Kimmerer, there is something missing in our study of nature. We have forgotten that we are part of the subjects we study, part of the forests that produce the air we breathe and the water we drink. We rely on nature’s rhythms and cycles far more than we rely on profit and technology. Simard’s book invites us to embrace this connection with the Earth when she writes: “I can’t tell if my blood is in the trees or if the trees are in my blood.” This book has, at its centre, a simple tale of a woman who follows her intuition, views compassion as a strength, and dares to see the world differently. It is also a reminder to listen to our wilder selves, and to remember, with humility, how little we know of the complexities of the natural world.

Tiffany Francis-Baker has been a writer in residence at Forestry England. Finding the Mother Tree by Suzanne Simard is published by Allen Lane (£20). To order a copy go to guardianbookshop.com . Delivery charges may apply.

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A Summary and Analysis of Mary Oliver’s ‘The Journey’

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)

‘The Journey’ is a poem by the American poet Mary Oliver (1935-2019), a poet who has perhaps not received as much attention from critics as she deserves. It’s been estimated that she was the bestselling poet in the United States at the time of her death, so a few words of analysis about some of her best-known poems seem appropriate. ‘The Journey’ is a poem about someone who leaves behind their old life and embarks on a journey towards a new one.

The poem is about the day when someone (addressed as ‘you’ by the poem’s speaker) realised what they had to do, and started to do it, even though there were many people around them who were trying to dissuade the person from doing it.

It seemed that the whole house shook with the import of this person’s decision. Voices cried throughout their house, demanding that this person fix their lives for them. But that person, the person to whom the poem is addressed, didn’t stop doing what they had decided to do, and carried on nonetheless.

This person knew what they had to do, even though the wind seemed to try to uproot the very foundations of the person’s existence, like someone tearing a house from the ground. Many of the people who had demanded that the person addressed in the poem ‘mend’ their life for them experienced terrible sadness at the person’s decision.

It was already late, so the person knew they couldn’t delay any longer, and the road ahead was already strewn with obstacles. But gradually, as the person left the voices of those people behind them, they began to see the stars shining through the clouds, and a new voice – which they came to realise was their own – spoke reassuringly to the person as they made their way deeper into the world.

This person was determined to do the only thing they could: to save themselves.

How should be analyse, or categorise, ‘The Journey’? We could interpret this symbolic and open-ended poem as about a mid-life crisis (it is ‘already late’, remember: suggesting that the person addressed is not in the first flush of youth), and more specifically, as a poem about a woman, a wife and perhaps even a mother, leaving behind the selfish needs of others and seeking self-determination and, indeed, self-salvation.

We say ‘woman’ not just because the poet, Mary Oliver, was herself female and often wrote about women’s lives, including her own; but because those ‘voices’ which demand that the person in the poem ‘mend’ their lives are immediately interpreted, or decoded, in our minds as children’s voices (and perhaps a husband’s, too).

And yet perhaps it would be a mistake to limit the poem in such a way, and suggest it is about a dissatisfied wife and mother who has lost her sense of identity as she has put others first ahead of herself for many years. ‘Mother’, in particular, brings problems given the actions of the person in the poem (of which more below), but even identifying the person as a woman restricts its broader message.

And in this connection, it is worth noting that Oliver’s mode in this poem – having a genderless speaker address a genderless ‘you’ through use of the second-person mode of address – keeps us in the dark about the identities, and genders, of both speaker and addressee.

What we can say, however, is that there is every reason to think that speaker and addressee, whichever gender they might be, are the same person: the speaker is addressing herself, following her long journey towards self-discovery (or rediscovery). This analysis of the poem makes sense when we bear in mind the moment when the speaker tells us that this journeywoman (or man) stopped hearing the selfish voices of those she’d (or he’d) left behind and instead heard his (or her) own voice. The poem, then, is an extension of this dialogue: the journeyperson speaking to themselves following their journey (back) towards themselves.

In the last analysis, then, ‘The Journey’ is a poem about leaving one’s past behind and rediscovering one’s own self, who one really is. And yet if we assume that the speaker/addressee is an adult (in the middle of their life) and the voices they leave behind include those of their children, are we meant to embrace this, or wonder whether such an act of abnegation of one’s duties in the quest for self-discovery is a step too far?

Perhaps this is where assumptions about the figure in the poem turn on whether we see them as a frustrated parent walking out on their family duties or, for instance, someone who has merely quit their job and escaped form an oppressive relationship, breaking out on their own.

Put simply, then, ‘The Journey’ is a poem whose message, whilst clear enough, raises some interesting questions. Is it always right to give up on one’s responsibilities to others when we feel they are holding us back? Does it depend on whether they are literally dependent on us, or merely exploiting us, and refusing to give anything back (that one-way ‘mend my life!’ is revealing, certainly, and perhaps is easier to attribute to a selfish partner than to young children, whose lives don’t need ‘mending’ but rather shaping or directing).

‘The Journey’ comprises one single stanza composed in free verse . Oliver’s use of free verse – no regular rhyme scheme, rhythm or metre, and irregular line lengths – mirrors the journey undertaken by the person in the poem, who is uncertain where their quest of self-discovery will lead, and whose undertaking of such a journey is beset by initial doubts and obstacles.

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James Joyce

Ask litcharts ai: the answer to your questions.

In Dublin, Ireland, around the turn of the 20th century, Mr Holohan , the assistant secretary of the Eire Abu Society, has been trying to get a series of concerts arranged for months. But, ultimately, a woman named Mrs Kearney ends up taking care of nearly everything for him. Mrs Kearney is a wealthy, educated Irishwoman who has always been uniquely stubborn. Rather than marry for love, she married the much older Mr Kearney , a stoic, pious boot manufacturer with a large brown beard, for the lavish lifestyle he could give her. Their daughter, Kathleen Kearney, receives a top-notch education like her mother. However, unlike Mrs Kearney, Kathleen has the opportunity to attend the Royal Irish Academy of Music to refine her piano-playing ability. When the Irish Revival (a renaissance of Irish art, music, and culture) becomes popular, Mrs Kearney gets Kathleen involved in the Nationalist movement, and Kathleen gains considerable fame as a pianist in Dublin.

Mr Holohan asks Mrs Kearney if Kathleen would be the accompanist for the four-night concert series his Society will be hosting, and she gives him food and wine and works up a contract with him so that Kathleen will receive eight guineas for her performance. From then on, Mrs Kearney takes over, advising Mr Holohan on how to plan the concerts and manage the “ artistes ” that will be performing, all the while keeping him supplied with plenty of wine.

Mrs Kearney spends a considerable amount of time and money getting the concerts ready and preparing Kathleen’s dress. But on the night of the first concert, she immediately senses that something is wrong. For all the preparation she did, very few people show up to the first concert. When she meets the secretary of the Society, Mr Fitzpatrick , a man with a brown hat and a “flat” Dublin accent, he doesn’t seem too disappointed, and his casual approach to the concert series irritates her. Mr Holohan admits that the Committee made a mistake in planning four concerts since four was apparently too many, and they had decided to just save all the best talent for the last concert.

The next concert is better attended, but Mrs Kearney can tell that the rowdy audience is mostly made up of people admitted for free. Mr Fitzpatrick talks loudly throughout the performances and, over the course of the evening, Mrs Kearney learns that the third concert will be canceled. She goes looking for Mr Holohan and insists that despite the cancellation, Kathleen should still get her eight guineas. But he tells her to talk to Mr Fitzpatrick, and Fitzpatrick, too, seems unable to guarantee anything. Before the last concert, Mrs Kearney explains the situation to her husband, who decides to go with her to the last show.

Unluckily, the last concert takes place on a rainy night. When Mrs Kearney can’t find Mr Fitzpatrick or Mr Holohan before the concert to ask them about Kathleen’s payment, she talks to Miss Beirne , a Committee member who is not particularly helpful and fairly resigned to the concert being a failure. The “artistes,” including Mr Duggan , Mr Bell , Miss Healy , and Madam Glynn , all arrive and awkwardly mingle as Mrs Kearney continues her search for Holohan and Fitzpatrick. Meanwhile, Mr Hendrick, a reporter from the Freeman , a daily Irish Nationalist newspaper, stands talking with Miss Healy, who appears to have a crush on him. Although Hendrick is supposed to report on the concert, he doesn’t actually like music and tells Mr Holohan that Mr O’Madden Burke will write the report instead. However, when Mr Holohan invites Hendrick to have a drink before he leaves, they find Mr O’Madden Burke drinking in a room far from where the concert will take place.

Meanwhile, Mrs Kearney has an intense conversation with her husband. Although it is time for the concert to start, Kathleen isn’t signaling the first performer, Mr Bell, to get ready. As the Kearneys debate something among themselves, the performers—especially Mr Bell—grow increasingly tense. Mr Holohan enters the room and Mrs Kearney tells him that Kathleen won’t perform until she gets her eight guineas. Kathleen stays silent as her mother and Mr Holohan argue, and Mr Holohan leaves the room. The performers talk awkwardly until Mr Holohan comes back with Mr Fitzpatrick, who gives Mrs Kearney some money and tells her that she’ll get the other half during intermission. Mrs Kearney tells him that he’s four shillings short of four guineas, but Kathleen tells Mr Bell to get started anyway.

Backstage, the performers gossip about who is in the right: the Committee or Mrs Kearney. The Committee members think Mrs Kearney has treated them badly, and Mrs Kearney thinks the Committee has treated her badly—and wouldn’t have treated her that way if she were a man. At intermission, the Committee decides not to pay Mrs Kearney anything, and when she and Mr Holohan have their final argument, she mocks him to his face in front of everyone. In doing so, she turns everyone against her and her family, and the Committee decides to replace Kathleen for the remainder of the concert. With their family reputation and Kathleen’s music career in ruins, the Kearneys leave the concert and O’Madden Burke assures Mr Holohan that he did the right thing.

Lose Your Mother

37 pages • 1 hour read

Lose Your Mother: A Journey Along The Atlantic Slave Route

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Lose Your Mother: A Journey Along the Atlantic Slave Route is a non-fiction work in which US literature scholar Saidiya Hartman journeys to Ghana to explore the history of slavery and her own ancestry. The book is unique because it is an admission of failure as much as a description of her findings. She concludes that, as an African-American, one cannot return to one’s roots because slavery has erased them.

She emphasizes that slavery began as a product of internal power dynamics and externally-imposed colonialist imperatives. An African aristocratic warrior group preyed on weaker neighbors and captured many of them to be slaves. Eventually, slavery became a global economic activity: The Portuguese, Dutch, French, and British arrived in Africa and claimed colonies of indigenous peoples for themselves. By the end of the 17th century, the Atlantic slave trade, the “seed” of European capitalism that provided free labor and ample wealth, was thriving—and it endured until the 19th century. Its legacy is the large population of African slave descendants who live in the Americas and Europe today.

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During the 1950s and 1960s, a period of rebellions against European colonialism in places such as Africa, many slave descendants dreamed of returning to Africa to find the freedom denied them in places such as the US. Initially, in Ghana, many found that liberation. Military despots killed that dream, however; a dictatorship friendly to a neocolonial economic system throttled the socialist aspiration for liberation and the equality proclaimed by Ghanaian leaders such as Kwame Nkrumah .

As a result, in Ghana, Hartman discovers a world of inequality and hardship where people do not share her desire to explore the history of slavery. Today’s Ghanaians are focused on survival; no one has time to think about the past. Plus, they prefer to forget it. Not only are they embarrassed, they are also ashamed of their ancestors’ role in selling other Africans to Europeans. Some Ghanaians live in denial about their nation’s slave past. Hartman’s journey begins with hope, but people treat her as an outsider and a stranger; Africans simply have no fellow feeling for her. In many cases, they are descended from slavers and proud of their ancestors who were successful and wealthy. Hartman finds this attitude odd. The sad thing for many Ghanaians is that the wealth is now gone. Some even long for colonialism because they felt life was better.

Meanwhile, Hartman’s fellow African-Americans are also skeptical about her desire to know the truth of slavery and to speak for the commoners who were enslaved. They tell her that Ghana is still in many ways a slave society because some have the power to dominate others economically.

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Physical places hold great significance for Hartman. For example, she ponders the meaning of a castle that once served as the Dutch slave depot and is now the seat of government; slaves were confined in its dungeons while they waited for ships to take them to the Americas. In the countryside, Hartman also finds abandoned settlements where once-vibrant communities died out when their inhabitants were captured and enslaved. Finally, she comes to a walled town that successfully defended itself against the slavers.

It saddens Hartman that all the stories and songs she unearths celebrate the warrior class of slavers rather than their victims. No one speaks for the commoners, such as Hartman’s ancestors. She concludes that history encompasses both the reality of struggles endured and how that reality is remembered and reported.

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I Am A Mother Summary

Finding purpose and fulfillment in the journey of motherhood, jane clayson johnson, many lives, many masters, brian l. weiss, secrets of the millionaire mind, t. harv eker, the 5 am club, robin sharma, the happiness advantage, shawn achor, the power of habit, charles duhigg.

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Description, readers also enjoyed, free pdf download, chapter 1 | overview, chapter 2 | motherhood is a complex and multi-faceted role that requires women to navigate the challenges of identity, balance, and self-care., chapter 3 | society often places unrealistic expectations on mothers, and it is important for women to lean on each other for support and to redefine motherhood on their own terms., chapter 4 | despite the challenges and sacrifices, motherhood is a profoundly meaningful and rewarding journey that can bring immense joy, personal growth, and love., chapter 5 | i am a mother review, books like i am a mother.

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Reviews | July/August 2021

A Review of The Book of Rosy: A Mother’s Story of Separation at the Border

By Lisa Braxton

The Book of Rosy: A Mother’s Story of Separation at the Border

by Rosayra Pablo Cruz and Julie Schwietert Collazo

HarperOne, 2020, 256 pp; $24.83 (hardcover)

The Book of Rosy: A Mother’s Story of Separation at the Border begins as a personal story of an indomitable mother. Rosayra (Rosy) Pablo Cruz is determined to get two of her children, sons Yordy and Fernando, to safety and a better life in the United States. She also faces the agonizing decision to leave daughters, Dulce and Britney, behind in the care of her mother. Written in two parts, Part One is in the words of asylum seeker Rosayra (Rosy) Pablo Cruz, as told to Julie Schwietert Collazo, co-founder of Immigrant Families Together. Part Two is Julie’s story of how she went from being a writer, editor, and translator to a fundraiser and activist leading a grassroots group reuniting and caring for families separated at the border. 

Anyone questioning the forces driving the number of undocumented migrants toward the US/Mexico border need only read The Book of Rosy. The story is intimate and immersive. As I delved into Rosy’s account, I felt as if we were two new friends sitting across from each other at one of those wobbly square tables at a coffee shop; her speaking to me in a hushed tone for privacy, and me leaning in to not miss a word of her harrowing journey, fighting the urge to put my hand on hers to both comfort her and steel myself for the details as she let them unfold.

In an unflinching account, she describes the crime, the gang violence, the constant threats of violence in her Guatemalan community, the assault on her life, the murder of her husband, and the fear that her children could be next.

Life is like this in Guatemala. Once the wheels of violence are set in motion, they don’t stop. They keep rolling forward. The engine may idle for a while, but the terrible machine will eventually keep plowing on, and it doesn’t care who stands in its path; it rolls over you with impunity. Once you are in its sights, you can do little—maybe nothing—to save yourself . . . unless you see a door and you run through it.

The door for Rosy and her young sons is what is known as the “Migrant Highway.” It is a heavily traveled section of many Central Americans’ journey northward, the two-lane road between her hometown and the last town before crossing from northwestern Guatemala into Mexico. Rosy takes us inside of a safe house, the first leg of the journey, where asylum seekers from El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala—women and men, children and babies—are crowded into a single room. We are there with her in a truck careening down the road for the journey that takes eight days and nights—2,300 miles—in which passengers are packed in, the heat suffocating and the smells oppressive, where threats of roadblocks, hijackers, and rapists are always present.

The asylum seekers are commonly switched from truck to truck along the way. At one point during this process, Rosy is separated from Yordy, which terrifies her.

A second truck pulls up, and it is our turn to crowd into the vehicle. I scramble into the truck bed with Fernando and turn to see that Yordy is being assigned to a third truck, which will be filled with men only. I don’t want to be separated from him, but there is no chance to protest this decision. Everyone is squished into the truck, the human equivalent of chicken or cattle you see crowded into crates or pens and loaded onto trucks to be shipped from the farm to the slaughterhouse.

At the immigrant processing center in the Arizona desert, Rosy is allowed to keep Fernando with her when they are moved to a cell, but Yordy is sent to another. Her insistence to the officer that both sons be allowed to stay with her is refused. Three days later she sees Yordy. Her mixture of relief and anguish comes through in her words.

Seventy-two hours can feel like a lifetime, especially when you’re sitting in a cold cell, anxious and afraid, with nothing to do but think. We spot each other through a window, our eyes meeting. I am so desperate to hold him, to embrace him, but I can’t. So, I just ask God to give us the strength to overcome this excruciatingly painful moment.

Rosy doesn’t know it at the time, but more pain is to come as the separation process becomes even lengthier. Along the way, mother and sons will face the hard task of trying to rebuild bonds that have become fractured and to realign the family hierarchy that has shifted during the immigration process.

At one point, Rosy seems to be speaking directly to individuals who question why asylum seekers pursue that route in the first place. Rosy states that most people don’t want to leave the land where they were born, and if they believed that they would be safe at home, they would never set off on such a journey.

An additionally appealing aspect of the book—during this era in which cultural appropriation in literature has been the source of much discussion and controversy—is that The Book of Rosy is an #ownvoices story of immigration, written about a marginalized community by a person from that marginalized community.

In Part Two of the book, Julie recounts her journey in helping Rosy, once she reaches the US, through her foundation, Immigrant Families Together. Julie’s story of raising funds to post bonds for mothers and for foster care centers that take in children separated at the border, as well as the support she provides for Rosy and her sons, illustrates the impact that generous people—typically strangers to those they are helping—have on the lives of individuals escaping hardship. While the writing is compelling, as the book switched to Julie’s section, I was longing to hear more of Rosy’s journey in the US from her point of view. 

The Book of Rosy is a quick read filled with moments of heartbreak, terror, joy, and triumph. The most painful moments in the story were when Rosy was separated from her children. The book left me feeling empathy for not only Rosy and her children, but for the countless others who have made that journey north to escape from conditions that are not only unbearable for themselves and their loved ones, but life-threatening. This book crystallizes the impact of immigration policy on a micro level and brings humanity to the immigration story.

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Screen Rant

Titans' new villain is officially one of their most powerful ever (using darkseid-level technology).

Amanda Waller is so determined to kill the Titans, she’s recruiting a mad scientist to use power worthy of Darkseid to create a lethal new weapon.

• The Titans face a new Darkseid-level threat thanks to Amanda Waller's manipulation and the creation of Vanadia.
• Waller's new cyborg weapon, powered by a Mother Box, can copy the Titans' powers and poses a serious danger.
• The Titans, already weakened and manipulated, must now face Vanadia and Waller's plan to eliminate them for good.

Warning! Spoilers ahead for Titans #10! Things are about to get a whole lot worse for the Titans now that they're about to face a Darkseid-level threat. The team might have survived "Beast World" but they aren't prepared for the next threat Amanda Waller has planned for them.

The Titans are still trying to pick up the pieces after Beast Boy lost himself and became an out-of-control monster. But Waller isn't going to give the team time to collect themselves. Instead, she's about to strike while they're weakened with a new villain that could be the Titans' most powerful threat yet.

Amanda Waller is Assembling Weapon Powered by a Mother Box

In Titans #10 by Tom Taylor, Lucas Meyer, Adriano Lucas, and Wes Abbott, the Titans have become aware that Trigon is coming for them once more. Unfortunately, the team doesn’t realize that they’re being manipulated by Raven’s demon half, who has been posing as Raven since the end of “Beast World”. With Flash gone, the Titans recruit Tempest to officially rejoin them, though Donna warns Garth that the public is still against them after Beast Boy nearly destroyed the world in his Garro form.

But Morrow stresses the importance of ensuring his robot is created right as Vanadia could “ wipe out all life on the planet ”.

Beast Boy, however, is finally starting to move past the outrage the public has for him, but only because Raven’s dark side removed feelings of guilt from Garfield’s mind. During a conversation with Raven, Starfire discovers how her friend altered Beast Boy’s mind, but before Koriand’r can respond, an alert rings out in Titans Tower as Raven’s brother Trilogy attacks the city. The Titans spring into action saving the protesters who’d been rallying against the team. Even Beast Boy manages to convince several protesters to trust him as the Titans evacuate the area.

The Titans manage to save the protesters while the evil Raven deals with her brother. As she drags Trilogy away, Nightwing begins to grow suspicious of Raven’s behavior. Elsewhere at an undisclosed location, Amanda Waller observes Dr. T.O. Morrow, who is carefully rebuilding a Mother Box while working on his latest creation. Waller wants Morrow to finish his new project, a cyborg named Vanadia, so Waller can use it to kill the Titans . But Morrow stresses the importance of ensuring his robot is created right as Vanadia could “ wipe out all life on the planet ”.

Amanda Waller's Journey to Creating the Perfect Titan Killer

After Dark Crisis on Infinite Earths , Waller was tasked by the Council of Light to exterminate every single metahuman on the face of the planet. From the shadows, Waller began manipulating heroes and villains alike, while also keeping an eye on heroes she felt were problematic. Waller targeted the Titans, who had stepped up to replace the Justice League after they disbanded following the most recent Crisis. To assist her mission, Waller secretly recruited Raven’s demon side and gifted her powerful, magic relics, turning her into Doctor Hate.

Waller got the chance of a lifetime to bring the Titans down a peg when the team responded to an attack by a terrifying alien known as the Necrostar. Beast Boy pushed his powers to the limit and became a Star Conqueror to repel the alien menace, which was a success. Unfortunately, Waller had Doctor Hate wipe Beast Boy’s mind , leaving him stuck in his ‘Garro’ form. To make matters worse, the monstrous Beast Boy released thousands of spores that attached themselves to people and turned them into animal-human hybrids.

Waller's antagonism towards the Titans can be seen in Titans (2023) and Titans: Beast World !

Amid the chaos, Waller became the head of the Bureau of Sovereignty. She attempted to use this power to bomb the hybrids until she was stopped by the Titans, who had Cyborg hack her drones and stop Waller’s drones. But the heroes played right into Waller’s hands. Waller publicly blamed Beast Boy for “Beast World” and told the world how the Titans hacked the United States government. As the heroes tried to assuage the public, Waller continued working to take the Titans down, even teaming up with Raven’s father, Trigon .

Waller's New Weapon Could Finally Take Down the Titans

While fans don’t get to see much of Vanadia other than the final page of Titans #10, there are hints to just how dangerous she is. For one, she’s being constructed by the mad scientist Dr. T.O. Morrow, the same evil genius who has a history of creating powerful androids (including Red Tornado). Morrow is also integrating a Fourth World Mother Box into Vanadia’s system, which could give her access to Source energy and make her far more powerful than the Titans’ usual villains .

Waller’s newest weapon does seem like she could potentially wipe out all life on Earth.

Vanadia might still be in construction right now, but a design variant by Lucas Meyer for the upcoming Titans #11 reveals that she can copy all of the team’s powers. One arm can mimic Beast Boy’s animal-based shape-shifting while her other arm secretly hides a canon similar to Cyborgs. Vanadia can also emit powerful Tamaranean-like energy and even wields Nightwing and Donna Troy’s respective signature weapons. The only Titan Vanadia doesn’t copy is Raven, but this isn’t necessary as the real Raven is currently imprisoned in the evil Raven’s gem.

Chris Samnee’s cover for Titans #11 also shows just how powerful a threat Vanadia is. Between her energy blasts and shape-shifting powers (not to mention the added powers granted to her by the Mother Box), Waller’s newest weapon does seem like she could potentially wipe out all life on Earth. At the very least, she’s going to be enough to weaken the Titans. Waller has already destroyed the team’s reputation during “Beast World”, and now she’s on the precipice of getting rid of the Titans for good .

Vanadia Will Be the Titans' Greatest Challenge Yet

The Titans’ confidence is shot and the evil Raven is slowly manipulating the Titans. The last thing they need right now is a powerful cyborg who can perfectly copy the Titans’ abilities. While the team has faced tough odds before, Vanadia is attacking the team at a pretty critical point. Between Morrow and Fourth World technology empowering Vanadia, Waller might have created the perfect weapon and is using it at the perfect time. Hopefully, the Titans can find a way to overcome this terrifying threat headed their way.

Titans #10 is available now from DC Comics.