Moth

Starred review from June 6, 2022
Razak debuts with a brilliant tale of a Delhi family’s ordeal during the turmoil of India’s partition in 1947. With India’s independence from Britain looming and violence between Hindus and Muslims increasing, 14-year-old Alma’s modern, high-caste parents, Bappu and Ma, reluctantly agree that a husband will help protect her. An engagement is announced, but when the groom’s family discovers that Alma’s grandmother tampered with Alma’s horoscope, the wedding is called off. Alma is embarrassed and wants to visit her father’s twin in Bombay. Train travel is dangerous, but headstrong Alma insists—leaving the day after British rule ends and India is divided into Muslim-majority Pakistan and Hindu-majority India—and goes missing from her train. Meanwhile, her shattered parents contend with a violent rebellion and food shortages in Delhi and try to safeguard their Muslim servant. Razak does not shy away from vile characters—rapists and gropers among them—but the most chilling players emerge at the end, as Alma’s fate is revealed. The settings are evocative, and the unhurried pace allows the narrative to take in a wide sweep of history beyond partition, including Gandhi’s assassination; however, it’s Alma’s family and their servants who power this tale with their rituals and resiliency. It’s an exceptional, beautifully written story. Agent: Stephanie Cabot, Susanna Lea Assoc.

Starred review from August 5, 2022

DEBUT When a misread horoscope ends the possibility of a marriage to the "so-fair boy" chosen for her, 14-year-old Alma, who belongs to a wealthy Brahmin family, escapes the humiliation by traveling from Delhi to Bombay to stay with her aunt. The year is 1947, and India is in deep turmoil; with its independence from Great Britain comes the Partition, with the country's division into Hindu-dominated India and Muslim-dominated East and West Pakistan creating a great migration for millions and leading to death estimates numbering in the millions. Traveling by train with a chaperone and an armed guard, Alma is attacked, severely beaten and raped, then taken to Lahore by her abductors, where her fate falls into the hands of a kind man of the lowest class (then called "untouchable," now better known as Dalit). Meanwhile, as the country is torn apart, Alma's traditional family is forced to make changes in their lives, and the death of Mahatma Gandhi impacts everyone in the newly formed nations. VERDICT Indian political history is effectively played out in this intense, focused debut, with Razak's eloquent writing making historical events seem like they are just taking place now.--Lisa Rohrbaugh

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Starred review from June 15, 2022
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.

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Starred review from July 1, 2022
Moth is the story of India's partition, in which an entire country is viewed through the lens of one family. There is Ma, poetic and brilliant; Bappu, kind, indulgent, occasionally weak; Roop, their cheerfully sociopathic six-year-old; and her elder sister, Alma. In February 1947, preparations are underway for 14-year-old Alma's marriage when, with astonishing speed, Delhi devolves from anxious partisanship along religious lines into chaos and blood. There are unspeakable atrocities, especially against women, provoking instances of mass suicide by those who would rather die than face dishonor. Alma's rich, liberated Cookie Auntie drinks, smokes, and speaks freely on the plight of Indian women, "Our lives have no value. It is the great tragedy of our nation." Razak's first novel follows the family and country through upheaval and loss, terrible brutality, and moments of beauty and kindness. The depth of characterization is remarkable, as is the evocation of place, solidly anchored through touch, scent, and especially taste--thick, oiled hair plaited by deft fingers, the perfume of jasmine wilting in summer heat, the flavor of crispy-sweet jalebi. This is a devastating yet vital tale of suffering and strength from an exceptional debut author.

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