A story of individual ambition and fragile family bonds, of aspiration and inevitable social change:
It is New Delhi in the 1980s, and Aahan Sikand and Rajesh Kumar are childhood playmates. They have been brought up under the care of the same woman, living in the same house, but with starkly different realities – Aahan is the only son and heir of the fabulously wealthy Sikand family, and Rajesh is the son of his father’s driver, who lives in a tiny staff quarter on the grounds of the sprawling Sikand House.
As Aahan and Rajesh grow up, the natural friendship they shared as children reaches an uncomfortable end, as both become aware of their places in the world. While Aahan is expected to keep what he has inherited intact for the next generation, Rajesh, in the eyes of the world, can, at best, hope for a life better than his father’s, free of domestic servitude. But he has much larger plans for himself. Equations is the story of the change that is sweeping the new India, seen through the lives of a traditional Delhi family.
‘Shivani Sibal’s Equations reminded me of some of the earlier work of Nayantara Sahgal. It is a remarkable first novel that takes us back to the 1980s: to the politics of Lutyens’ Delhi, to the story of a traditional family caught in the throes of change. Reading Equations is like seeing the drama of a now lost time unfold before our eyes frame by frame; I know that it is a book readers will be talking about for a long time to come.’
–Udayan Mitra, Publisher – Literary, HarperCollins Publishers India
‘Equations is a wonderful debut that is nuanced, evocative, and beautifully written. This novel should be on everyone’s reading list.’
–Prerna Gill, Editor – Literary, HarperCollins Publishers India
About the author:
Shivani Sibal was born and brought up in New Delhi, where she continues to live with her husband and daughters. Equations is her first novel.
About HarperCollins India
HarperCollins Publishers India is a subsidiary of HarperCollins Publishers. HarperCollins India publishes some of the finest writers from the Indian Subcontinent and around the world, publishing approximately 200 new books every year, with a print and digital catalog of more than 2,000 titles across 10 imprints. Its authors have won almost every major literary award including the Man Booker Prize, JCB Prize, DSC Prize, New India Foundation Award, Atta Galatta Prize, Shakti Bhatt Prize, Gourmand Cookbook Award, Publishing Next Award, Tata Literature Live Award, Gaja Capital Business Book Prize, BICW Award, Sushila Devi Award, Prabha Khaitan Woman’s Voice Award, Sahitya Akademi Award and the Crossword Book Award. HarperCollins India has been awarded the Publisher of the Year Award three times: at Publishing Next in 2015, and at Tata Literature Live! in 2016 and 2018.
HarperCollins India also represents some of the finest publishers in the world including Egmont, Oneworld, Harvard University Press, Bonnier Zaffre, Usborne, Dover, and Lonely Planet.
For more information, please write to Aman Arora at aman.arora@harpercollins.co.in
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