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Haunting Bombay

Shilpa Agarwal

One day, as monsoons engulf the city, Pinky opens a mysteriously bolted door...




April 2010 | Fiction
Paperback
978-1-56947-630-7

"[I]ntriguing debut novel . . . Agarwal seeks to give voice to the dispossessed through the supernatural. "—USA Today

"Love is stronger than death, and secrets will always come out, as this carefully crafted debut novel reveals….Agarwal’s work will definitely appeal to fans of Monica Ali and Jhumpa Lahiri by virtue of its characters and setting, but it retains a fresh, original feel that will draw in new readers with its own literary merit."—Library Journal Starred Review

"With deft lyricism and authority, Haunting Bombay tells a big story in swift and bold strokes—a story whose ending surprises and haunts, lingering long after you turn the final page."—Saher Alam, author of The Groom to Have Been

"In her stunning debut novel Shilpa Agarwal takes on the ghosts that bedevil young Pinky Mittal's extended family and dispatches them with rambunctious wit and affection. The result is like finely wrought mirror work, a glittering tapestry of vibrant contradictions, characters, and mysteries. Haunting Bombay flirts deliciously with the true spirit of India."—Aimee Liu, author of Flash House


Synopsis:

After her mother's death crossing the border from Pakistan to India during Partition, baby Pinky was taken in by her grandmother, Maji, the matriarch of the powerful Mittal family. Now thirteen-years-old, Pinky lives with her grandmother and her uncle's family in a bungalow on the Malabar Heights in Bombay. While she has never really been accepted by her uncle's family, she has always had Maji's love.

One day, as monsoons engulf the city, Pinky opens a mysteriously bolted door, unleashing the ghost of an infant who drowned shortly before Pinky's arrival and of the nursemaid in whose charge the child was. Three generations of the Mittal family must struggle to come to terms with their secrets amidst hidden shame, forbidden love, and a call for absolute sacrifice.

About the Author:

Shilpa Agarwal was born in Bombay and currently lives in Los Angeles. She is a graduate of Duke University and UCLA and has taught at both UCLA and UC Santa Barbara. As an unpublished novel, Haunting Bombay won the 2003 First Words Literary Prize for South Asian Writers. It is her first novel.

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