First published 2021
Krishan receives a phone call with devastating news. Rani, who once cared for his grandmother, has died after falling into a well in her northern village. Her neck broke in the fall. The call comes just after Krishan reads an email from Anjum, an activist he loved four years ago in Delhi. Old memories and feelings resurface. Krishan boards a train in Colombo and travels into the Northern Province, a region scarred by war. The long journey to Rani's funeral becomes something deeper. He reflects on time, memory, and the people who shape our lives. The train carries him through landscapes marked by violence and loss. As he moves north, Krishan confronts the connections between past and present, between his personal history and his country's wounds. The novel follows his internal journey as much as his physical one, exploring how relationships leave lasting marks on consciousness and how a divided island carries the weight of its missing and dead.
Genres: literary-fiction, contemporary, 21st-century, asian-american
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: internal-journey, personal-history
Setting: Colombo, Delhi, Northern Province, Sri Lanka
Period: 21st-century
290 pages · Paperback · Granta Books