Observer's 'Ten Debut Novelists' of 2021 Longlisted for the Desmond Elliott PrizeShortlisted
for the Author's Club Best First Novel AwardHarper's Bazaar's 'Five Debut Female Authors to
Read This Summer''Powerful and heartbreaking'Observer'Gripping... Razak painstakingly paints a
portrait of a family their rituals their private languages their shared lives'The Times
'Heartbreaking and heart-warming... The character portrayal is so intricate that as the plot
twists and turns you'll truly care what happens to them'Independent'Assured and
powerful'Harper's Bazaar'One of the best debuts I've ever read. It made my heart swell'Sarah
Winman author of Still Life'A stunning powerful work by a brave new voice in British
fiction'Anna Hope author of Expectation 'Powerful and moving... Every character springs from
the page'Clare Chambers author of Small Pleasures Delhi 1946 Ma and Bappu teach at the local
university. Their fourteen year-old daughter Alma is soon to be married but she is mostly
interested in spinning wild stories for her beloved younger sister Roop.Times are bad for girls
in India. The long-awaited independence from British rule brings unrest that threatens to
unravel the rich tapestry of Delhi and when Partition happens Ma Bappu Alma and Roop are
forced to find increasingly desperate ways to survive.But the the power of hope is an
extraordinary thing...MEET THE FAMILY AT THE HEART OF MOTH:Alma: the beating heart of the
novel. We meet her as a precocious 14-year old who becomes entangled with the chaos of
Partition with devastating consequencesRoop: Alma's younger sister. Obsessed with death she is
a fierce funny and rather wild child trying to make sense of the destruction that has befallen
her familyMa and Bappu: their dream of an independent India collapses under the weight of
History. Ma's experience mirrors that of the many Indian women who were hoping for new freedom
under an independent India - and had to face more harassment and insecurity insteadAnd many
more: the Muslim nanny forced to hide in a water tank the widowed house-keeper whose mission
is to keep the family together the old grandmother obsessed with the family's honour and
determined to preserve it no matter the cost...
