Girls Don’t Cry

By Gajra Kottary

About the book

Twenty-six-year-old advertising professional Amala walks the tightrope between her big-city dreams and small-town roots. Having just broken up with her possessive live-in Mumbaikar boyfriend, Amala returns to Jalandhar in time for her grandfather’s funeral. Back home, she is barely on talking terms with her mother, Disha, who divorced her father and entered into a relationship with another man. But the funeral does let Amala spend time with her grandmother. Veera naanji speaks to her of their collective past, uncovering knotty family secrets that society habitually sweeps under the carpet. The much-revered men in her family were not as admirable as they seemed, Amala comes to see. She must now assess her life and relationships afresh.Girls Don’t Cry parses the lives of three generations of women in a middle-class family and the choices they make as they navigate a man’s world. It is a profound reflection on friendship and love between mothers and daughters, and on what it takes to face truths that can break you forever.