PREETI SHENOY’s new novel, A PLACE CALLED HOME, to be out this June

HarperCollins India is delighted to announce the upcoming release of best-selling author Preeti Shenoy’s heart-warming new novel, A Place Called Home, available now on pre-order. With a strong woman protagonist at its core, this intimate and gripping story is about coming home to one’s true self, to where it all began from, to owning one’s life story with no pages to tear and throw away. Promising to take the reader on a bitter-sweet journey set across a lush coffee estate and the bright city lights, along with its relatable cast of characters, criss-crossed with the thrills as well as the trials of romance, relationships, recollections and revelations, this is fiction at its closest to life – at once fragile and then again, so worth fighting for.

About the book –

When a woman’s secret past comes back to haunt her present, threatening to shatter it all, will it be fight, flight or, finally, freedom for her?

In the windowless, cramped servant’s room at Mrs Shetty’s luxurious house, where her mother is a maid, Alka dreams of an escape. When Mrs Shetty decides to send her to the same school as her daughter, she works hard, moulding herself into a new avatar.

She marries Subbu, a coffee grower with a four hundred acre estate. Between taking care of her heritage home, her two young daughters and her fabulous relationship with her mother-in-law, Alka’s life feels complete.

But when secrets about her past that she has fiercely guarded are exposed, they threaten to destroy her life. To protect all that she has, Alka must fight her demons and travel back to the world she worked so hard to leave behind.

A Place Called Home is a novel about secrets, family, and finding yourself, from bestselling author Preeti Shenoy.

Talking about the book, Preeti Shenoy said, ‘This book is also an important social commentary on the class system that exists in India, narrated through the protagonist Alka’s eyes in an easy-to-read style. It is estimated that there are over four million domestic workers in India (and this just the official figure). They are unrecognized, unregulated and their lives are obscure in private homes. It is almost impossible for them to ‘beat the system’ and create a better life for themselves. But Alka does just that and ends up marrying a coffee grower. Yet she is not accepted by even her own husband, when the truth about her background comes out.

The book is set in a coffee estate in Sakleshpur, Karnataka and it is dedicated to all the coffee growers and coffee drinkers everywhere. It’s easily my best work yet. It was such a pleasure to work on this one, with Swati. I feel very fortunate that I got her as my editor and I think Harper Collins was the best publisher for this story. It is a very unique, rich tale. I am so excited for this book to be out!’

Swati Daftuar, Executive Editor at HarperCollins India, said, ‘This is, I believe, Preeti’s finest book yet. The complex and very real issues in the book that she handles with such finesse and empathy, the beautiful backdrop of a coffee estate that becomes the setting for such turmoil and upheaval, and a complicated and endearing protagonist at the centre of it all – everything comes together to makes A Place Called Home a truly satisfying read.’

About the Author – Preeti Shenoy, among the highest selling authors in India, is on the Forbes longlist of the most influential celebrities in India. Her books include When Love Came Calling, Wake Up Life is Calling, Life is What You Make it, The Rule Breakers, A Hundred Little Flames, It’s All In The Planets, Why We Love The Way We Do, The Secret Wish List, The One You Cannot Have and many others. Her work has been translated into many Indian languages. Preeti is also a motivational speaker, and has given talks in many premier educational institutions and corporate organisations like KPMG, ISRO, Infosys and Accenture and others. An avid fitness enthusiast, she is also an artist specialising in portraiture and illustrated journals.

Pre-order the book here – preeti.io/home

For more information and queries, please write to: Shabnam.Srivastava@harpercollins.co.in