Girls Burn Brighter

January 8, 2018
Rao’s stirring debut novel (following the collection An Unrestored Woman) explores how far a woman will go to recapture the one sustaining relationship in her life. It’s 2001, and Poornima and Savitha are both considered poor marriage prospects in their Indian village of Indravalli, Poornima because she’s unattractive and defiant, Savitha because her family is desperately poor. When the two girls become acquainted, they recognize the value in one another that the rest of their world has failed to acknowledge. When, on the eve of Poornima’s eventual wedding to a man with imperfections of his own, tragedy befalls Savitha, the two girls are separated, seemingly forever. Affecting and rich in dramatic irony, the young women’s stories—told in alternating sections—follow their travels from village to city and eventually from India to Seattle. Although lengthy metaphysical musings threaten at times to derail the momentum, the narrative’s thematic consistency and emotional urgency will pull readers along. Vivid depictions of contemporary Indian culture and harrowing accounts of human trafficking—along with the novel’s ambiguous ending—will leave readers, and book clubs, with much to ponder and discuss.

May 1, 2018

Difficult life circumstances bring together two Indian village girls: Poornima meets Savitha because Poornima's recently widowed father needs help weaving saris; clever, kind Savitha must help support her impoverished family. The pair are soon inseparable, nurturing each other in a society in which their gender dooms them as financial liabilities to be bartered off. And then a horrifying act against Savitha sets her adrift in a life of unrelenting cruelty. Poornima is pushed into a loveless marriage, where she's abused almost beyond recognition. When she finally escapes, her unwavering determination to find Savitha keeps her alive, as she painstakingly plots her path through the international underworld of sex slavery and trafficking to reunite somehow, somewhere, with her missing soulmate. Rao's (An Unrestored Woman) debut novel finds the ideal narrator in Soneela Nankani, who remains consistently effective in voicing her two protagonists while also displaying impressively subtle adaptations for the rest of the diverse cast, from a powerlessly adoring father to a wretchedly angry mother-in-law, from an American airport stranger to a brutally abusive pimp. VERDICT A radiant love story set amid searing inhumanity, these Girls will surely be bright beacons in all library collections. ["Highly recommended for book discussion groups, this tale of sacrifice, exploitation, and reclamation is not to be missed": LJ 1/18 starred review of the Flatiron: Macmillan hc.]--Terry Hong, Smithsonian BookDragon, Washington, DC

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