Safed Libaas Wali Ladki (Girl in White Cotton)

SHORTLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE 2020, AND PUBLISHED IN THE UK AS BURNT SUGAR

Utterly compelling, complex, unflinching realism – sometimes emotionally wrenching but also cathartic, written with poignancy and memorability. – The Booker Prize Judges 2020

Avni Doshi is a writer of surgical precision and sharp intelligence. This novel of mother-and-daughter resentments and the deep, intimate cuts of ancient family history gleams like a blade – both dangerous and beautiful. I loved it. – Elizabeth Gilbert, bestselling author of Eat, Pray, Love

Taut and unsettling, a dark, ferocious novel. – Fatima Bhutto, author of The Runaways

Antara has never understood her mother Tara’s decisions – walking out on her marriage to follow a guru, living on the streets like a beggar, shacking up with an unknown artist, rebelling against society’s expectations … But when Tara starts losing her memory, Antara searches for a way to make peace with their shared past, a past that haunts them both.

As she relives her childhood in Pune in the eighties, the time she spent at a Catholic boarding school in the hills of Maharashtra, and her years as a young artist in Bombay, Antara comes up against her own fears and neuroses, realizing she might not be so different from Tara after all.

Safed Libaas Wali Ladki, the Hindi translation of Girl in White Cotton, is a journey into shifting memories, altering identities, and the subjective nature of truth. Tracing the fragile line between familial devotion and deception, Avni Doshi’s mesmerizing first novel will surprise and unsettle you.