Based on an aside in Mahatma Gandhi's autobiography in which he mentions a
brief but seductive youthful flirtation with an Englishwoman. The Woman Who
Knew Gandhi boldly imagines a long correspondence between a spiritual
leader from the East and an ordinary woman from the West. In 1948, just after
Gandhi's assassination, Martha Houghton receives a letter from Gandhi's son,
who himself lies dying to tuberculosis in Bombay. Having found a stash of her
letters to his father, he asks to meet her. The request sends Martha into a
tailspin, for her husband knows nothing of her lifelong friendship with
Gandhi.
Martha and her husband are forced to reevaluate their long marriage, and she
must find a way to reconcile the disparate halves of her life. Moreover, their
small community becomes a magnet for the press, and Martha finds her words
twisted and used against her. Ultimately, she must decide whether to meet her
old friend's son on his deathbed or to remain in England and mend the rift in
her marriage. Charmingly and elegantly written, The Woman Who Knew Gandhi
explores the many definitions of love and friendship and the surprise of
marriage.
