An Unrestored Woman

In An Unrestored Woman, the partition of India and Pakistan in 1947 cuts a jagged path through the lives of ordinary women and men, leaving ripples of sorrow through time and space. Each couplet of stories spans the Indian subcontinent, from refugee camps and torched trains to the spacious verandas of the British Raj, and billows into the wider world. An old woman recounts the murdering of what was most precious to her, and the many small cuts that led her to that act. A girl forced into prostitution wields patience as deftly as a weapon, and manages to escape her fate. An Indian servant falls in love with his employer, and spins a twisted web of deceit.The characters in these fearless stories stumble - occasionally towards love, more often towards survival - and find that history, above all, is their truest and greatest opponent. And what emerges, in the midst of newly erected barriers, boundaries, and nations, is a journey into the centre of the only place that matters - the human heart.

An Unrestored Woman: And Other Stories

Literature & Fiction

Rao, Shobha

Literary

Fleet

Girls Burn Brighter

Pet Urban Health

“What an astonishing collection! Provoking, ferocious, moving, splendid, generous and essential. I seemed to finish the book in a different world than the one in which I began it.” ―Kelly Link, author of Get In Trouble and Stranger Things HappenIn her mesmerizing debut, Shobha Rao recounts the untold human costs of one of the largest migrations in history.1947: the Indian subcontinent is partitioned into two separate countries, India and Pakistan.  And with one decree, countless lives are changed forever. An Unrestored Woman explores the fault lines in this mass displacement of humanity: a new mother is trapped on the wrong side of the border; a soldier finds the love of his life but is powerless to act on it; an ambitious servant seduces both master and mistress; a young prostitute quietly, inexorably plots revenge on the madam who holds her hostage. Caught in a world of shifting borders, Rao’s characters have reached their tipping points. In paired stories that hail from India and Pakistan to the United States, Italy, and England, we witness the ramifications of the violent uprooting of families, the price they pay over generations, and the uncanny relevance these stories have in our world today.

Virago

“What an astonishing collection! Provoking, ferocious, moving, splendid, generous and essential. I seemed to finish the book in a different world than the one in which I began it.” ―Kelly Link, author of Get In Trouble and Stranger Things Happen
In her mesmerizing debut, Shobha Rao recounts the untold human costs of one of the largest migrations in history.
1947: the Indian subcontinent is partitioned into two separate countries, India and Pakistan. And with one decree, countless lives are changed forever. 
An Unrestored Woman explores the fault lines in this mass displacement of humanity: a new mother is trapped on the wrong side of the border; a soldier finds the love of his life but is powerless to act on it; an ambitious servant seduces both master and mistress; a young prostitute quietly, inexorably plots revenge on the madam who holds her hostage. Caught in a world of shifting borders, Rao’s characters have reached their tipping points. 
In paired stories that hail from India and Pakistan to the United States, Italy, and England, we witness the ramifications of the violent uprooting of families, the price they pay over generations, and the uncanny relevance these stories have in our world today.

United States

Flatiron Books

Best Book of the Year: The Washington Post, NPR, Shelf Awareness, Paste, LitHub, Real Simple 2018 Goodreads Choice Awards Finalist: Best Fiction Longlisted for the 2018 Center for Fiction First Novel Prize “Incandescent...A searing portrait of what feminism looks like in much of the world.” ―Vogue “A treat for Ferrante fans, exploring the bonds of friendship and how female ambition beats against the strictures of poverty and patriarchal societies.” ―The Huffington Post An electrifying debut novel about the extraordinary bond between two girls driven apart by circumstance but relentless in their search for one another.
Poornima and Savitha have three strikes against them: they are poor, they are ambitious, and they are girls. After her mother’s death, Poornima has very little kindness in her life. She is left to care for her siblings until her father can find her a suitable match. So when Savitha enters their household, Poornima is intrigued by the joyful, independent-minded girl. Suddenly their Indian village doesn't feel quite so claustrophobic, and Poornima begins to imagine a life beyond arranged marriage. But when a devastating act of cruelty drives Savitha away, Poornima leaves behind everything she has ever known to find her friend. 
Her journey takes her into the darkest corners of India's underworld, on a harrowing cross-continental journey, and eventually to an apartment complex in Seattle. Alternating between the girls’ perspectives as they face ruthless obstacles, Shobha Rao's Girls Burn Brighter introduces two heroines who never lose the hope that burns within.

Girls Burn Brighter: A Novel

A LibraryReads PickPoornima and Savitha have three strikes against them: they are poor, they are ambitious, and they are girls. When a devastating act of cruelty drives Savitha away from their village, Poornima leaves behind everything she has ever known on a harrowing cross-continental journey to find her friend. This searing, electrifying debut is about the extraordinary bond between two girls driven apart by circumstance but relentless in their search for one another.

Girls Burn Brighter (Thorndike Press Large Print Basic)

Thorndike Press Large Print

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Neri Pozza

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Books by Rao, Shobha

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Rao, Shobha. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

An Unrestored Woman: And Other Stories

Girls Burn Brighter

An Unrestored Woman: And Other Stories

An Unrestored Woman

Girls Burn Brighter: A Novel

An Unrestored Woman

Girls Burn Brighter: A Novel

Girls Burn Brighter (Thorndike Press Large Print Basic)

Il cuore delle ragazze arde più forte