Moth

ONE OF THE OBSERVER'S 'TEN DEBUT NOVELISTS' OF 2021

Delhi, 1946. Ma and Bappu are liberal intellectuals teaching at the local university. Their fourteen year-old daughter — precocious, headstrong Alma — is soon to be married: Alma is mostly interested in her wedding shoes and in spinning stories for her beloved younger sister Roop.

Times are bad for girls in India. The long-awaited independence from British rule is heralding a new era of hope, but political unrest is brewing, threatening to unravel the rich tapestry of Delhi — a city where different cultures have co-existed for centuries.

When Partition happens and the British Raj is fractured overnight, this wonderful family is violently torn apart and its members are forced to find new ways to survive. But the resilience of the human spirit is an extraordinary thing...

'Gripping... Razak painstakingly paints a portrait of a family; their rituals, their private languages, their shared lives. This careful characterisation pays off, heartbreakingly, when the horrors of partition wreak havoc on small, happy lives' — THE TIMES

'I adored Moth: it's one of the best debuts I've ever read. It made my heart swell' — SARAH WINMAN