MOTH

British Iranian author Razak’s shattering debut depicts the trauma of the Indian Partition through the experiences of one family of Delhi Brahmins.

In Pushp Vihar, the House of Flowers, 14-year-old Alma is too excited to sleep. She is to be married in five weeks in a match quickly arranged by her grandmother Daadee Ma. Her 5-year-old sister, the rambunctious, death-obsessed Roop, is not impressed. She’s more interested in catching the mouse that lives in the courtyard. Their parents, Bappu and Ma, who are both teachers at Delhi University, believe Alma is too young to marry but think she might be safer with a husband. It’s February 1947, only six months before the partition that will create the nations of India and Pakistan, and already there are intimations of the brutal violence that is set to explode between Hindus and Muslims: “Alma had asked Bappu if they would come here, those people that burnt down each other’s homes; he had reassured her they would not.” As the countdown winds down to Aug. 15, Independence Day, this liberal-minded, middle-class family discovers to its anguish that its high caste status will not protect its most vulnerable members from the erupting chaos. Razak’s carefully structured narrative skillfully builds the growing sense of dread that has anxious readers fearing for her richly drawn characters. The author, who was inspired by a BBC audio series called “Partition Voices” and who traveled extensively across India, writes with sensitivity and empathy, vividly capturing the rhythms of daily Indian life as well as the harrowing sectarian and ethnic upheavals that upended so many lives.

An exceptional novel that is historical fiction at its finest.