This is a place of mystery...a sanctuary. Every book, every volume you see here has a soul. The soul of the person who wrote it and of those who read it and lived and dreamed with it. Every time a book changes hands, every time someone runs his eyes down its pages, its spirit grows and strengthens.

Carlos Ruiz Zafon, The Shadow of the Wind

Dear Reader

Welcome to BookCrossing, especially if it is your first time here. I am really pleased that you found this book. It is a gift from me to you. If you wish you may hold on to it, but I hope that you will pass it on, either to a friend or loved one, or by leaving it to be found again. That way our book will be on an adventurous journey which we can follow as it gets passed along.

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Happy Reading!

From amazon.co.uk

A highly atmospheric mystery set in India, with the controversial subject of female foeticide at the fore. Longlisted for the ManAsian Literary Prize. In a small town in the heart of India, a young girl is found tied to a bed inside a townhouse where 13 people lie dead. The girl is alive, but only just. She is arrested for the murders she is believed to have committed. Visiting social worker Simran attempts to break through the girl's mute trance to discover the truth. Hauntingly real, and beautifully atmospheric, this ia a major debut.

To my good friend: Wishing you a very happy birthday!!! x

Thank you so much, shelj7k! I had heard about this book only very recently when it won the Costa First Novel Award and then added it to my wishlist... and here it comes already. With a lovely painted metal bookmark in form of a dolphin!

This is more than just a crime story set in India, it’s a thought-provoking novel about social injustice, written in simple, engaging style. It’s a gripping tale, unputdownable, haunting – especially because only the characters are fictional, but not the events. It’s an important book, and I’m glad it recently won the Costa First Novel Award (certainly for its contents, but not for the literary skills).

Flewry chose it from the South Asian VBB.
Travelling over the big pond now.

This looks like a great read, thank you so much for sending it!

I found this fascinating mostly for the glimpse into Indian society. I loved the strong female characters. It was a fast read and never boring. However, the story itself fell a little flat for me. Maybe I am just conditioned to expect mysteries to tie up a little more cleanly, but I felt that the novel's central events were never explained any further than they were in the very first chapter; our knowledge of the crime never became clearer. And I did feel that it could have been better edited. Overall I liked the writing style, but some events felt sloppily written and confusing for me.

I did like the very ending, after the major plot has ostensibly tied up, but I don't want to give that away!

Now traveling in my Fiction and Literature bookbox.

Flewry allowed me to scoop this out of her bookbox. Looks interesting.

Wow. I am going to have to find other books by this author.

Simran grew up as a child of privilege in a rural city. Yet her background has made her an odd note in her own society; her father's family lost everything in the partition of India, and although he made another fortune, it set her family apart. Added to that, Simran herself refused to marry, and at age 45 is a NGO volunteer social worker/psychologist.

She seemed perfect for the city authorities to send to her old provincial town to get a young teenager talking about how and why she was found in her family's home, tied up, bloody, naked, and surrounded by her slaughtered family. The truth is never easy, and rarely apparent. Simran slowly sifts through the layers and possibilities for young women in India, touching on selective abortion, infanticide, child rape, child marriage, dowry burning, and insane asylums for recalcitrant women. Deftly done, there is mostly a pervasive anger and sadness hanging over the entire story, yet no moralistic brow-beating.

Part of the charm is the writing. Slow to start, it is almost a dreamscape as little pieces of life are revealed through the eyes of Simran. A far better introduction to the realities of life in much of SE Asia than I am Nujood, Age 10 and Divorced.

Gave to a friend who will read and release somewhere.

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Enjoyed reading the book very much though the abuse shown to some of the characters was difficult to read.