Stealing Karma

‘You keep your trust in me,’ Wairimu said. ‘No harm will come to this baby who is of your womb and of my land.’ Brought up in a convent in India and married to a man who has made Nairobi his home, Mira knows no life beyond the walls of her bungalow, until the phone rings one day and a voice informs her that her husband has died.  In the midst of an attempted military coup, Mira is left without any income and with a young child to support.  Her response is to withdraw into herself, and it is left to Wairimu, their African housekeeper, to bring up Shanti. While Mira searches for memories from pasts that are not quite hers, Shanti struggles to make sense of her mother’s seeming indifference as she rapidly approaches adulthood. Set against the vast landscape of modern Africa, Aneesha Capur’s debut novel is a beautifully crafted tale of a mother and daughter coming to terms with their history even as they grapple with their precarious present.