Manreet Sodhi Someshwar

Niki's determination to complete her dead father's unfinished book, his life's work, takes her from India to New York City where her pursuit of a mysterious immigrant woman turns into an obsession that begins to imperil her daughter, her marriage, and, eventually, Niki herself. When a blizzard blankets NYC, Niki finds herself on a path where the present and past collide violently. Propulsive and poetic, this elegant literary thriller melds the fervour of Punjab with the frenzy of New York. Spanning the cataclysms of Partition and 9/11, via the brutality of Emergency and the pogrom of 1984, the novel explores the impossible choices women are forced to make in the face of violence, the ties that connect them across ages, and the secrets they store. Interweaving the epic Mahabharata, the poetry of Bulleh Shah, and the legend of Heer, The Radiance of a Thousand Suns is a novel about the mythic and the intimate, about stories on tapestry and mobs that recur, about home and love and history and those heartbreaking moments when they all come crashing together.

The Radiance of a Thousand Suns

In the months leading up to Independence, in Delhi, Jawaharlal Nehru and Vallabhbhai Patel are engaged in deliberations with British Viceroy Dickie Mountbatten over the fate of the country. In Lahore, Sepoy Malik returns home from the Great War hoping to win his sweetheart Tara's hand in marriage, only to find divide-and-rule holding sway, and love, friendships, and familial bonds being tested. Set in parallel threads across these two cities, Lahore is a behind-the-scenes look into the negotiations and the political skulduggery that gave India its freedom, the price for which was batwara. As the men make the decisions and wield the swords, the women bear the brunt of the carnage that tears through India in the sticky hot months of its cruellest summer ever. Backed by astute research, The Partition Trilogy captures the frenzy of Indian independence, the Partition and the accession of the states, and takes readers back to a time of great upheaval and churn.

Book 1 of The Partition Trilogy

Lahore

Girls and the City

Mir Osman Ali Khan, Asaf Jah VII, is the Nizam of Hyderabad, the largest Princely State of the Crown. It sits in the belly of newly independent India to which Jawaharlal Nehru and Vallabhbhai Patel want Hyderabad to accede. The Communists have concurrently mounted a state-wide rebellion. But the Nizam's family has ruled Hyderabad for 200 years. As the wealthiest man in the world, whom the British consider numero uno amongst India's princes, he will not deal with two-penny Indian politicians! An ancient prophecy, however, hangs over the Nizam - the Asaf Jahi dynasty will last only seven generations. So, he keeps his jewel-laden trucks ready for flight even as he schemes with his army of militant Razakars. Meanwhile, in the palace thick with intrigue, the maid Uzma must decide where her loyalties lie: with the peasantry or the Nizam. Among the Communist recruits, Jaabili finds love in unexpected quarters. Violence escalates and lawlessness mounts. Caught between a volatile Nizam and a resolute India, what price will Hyderabad pay? Advance Praise for Hyderabad: Book 2 of The Partition Trilogy 'Hyderabad! A liberation? A tragedy? The result of the Ironman's will and Nehru's vision to build a nation? The daydreams of a Nizam? The diplomatic strategies of Nehru and Dickie? Dreams of a Communist revolution? The common people's struggles and sacrifices for land and a fistful of grain? But everything finally ends with a never-ending, silent violence on women's bodies in the formation of a state. This is well-researched history woven as a thrilling novel by a terrific novelist, Manreet Sodhi Someshwar.' - Volga, author of Vimukta Kadha Samputi Praise for Lahore: Book 1 of The Partition Trilogy 'Breathtaking in scope, painful yet gentle to the touch.' - Taslima Nasreen 'Vivid and atmospheric.' - Aanchal Malhotra 'Current, relevant and important.' - Sabyn Javeri 'Deftly weaves the big strands of history with the finer threads of human feeling.' - Manu S. Pillai 'Clearly a passion project ... brilliantly traces our collective heritage.' - The Deccan Herald 'Does not let the subaltern disappear into the shadow of the giants...' - Scroll.in 'Deft writing ... Lahore is a timely reminder of what hatred among brothers can do ... Gripping and laced with pulsating emotions, it is a book worth reading.' - The Hindu BusinessLine 'Unputdownable' - The Week

Book 2 of The Partition Trilogy

Hyderabad

The Taj Conspiracy

Yeh faasle teri galiyon ke humse tay na huey, hazaar baar rukey hum hazaar baar chaley Na jaane kaun si mitti watan ki mitti thi, nazar mein dhool, jigar mein liye ghubaar chaley - Gulzar Seventy-one-year-old Baksh wakes up one night in pain and ventures out in search of a doctor. In the time it takes him to reach a hospital, his heart irretrievably damaged, he travels down memory lane, reliving his life lived in the border town of Ferozepur, Punjab-from pre-Partition India, to the holocaust that accompanied independence, the Indo-Pak wars, the Green Revolution and the rise of religious extremism. Increasingly isolated in the terror-infested eighties, an era of curfews, encounters and hit lists, his world all but falls apart as his wife falls under the spell of a rabid preacher; his best friend, a Hindu, flees the town; the Bar Council where he works cleaves along religious lines; and he himself makes an error of judgement that could have serious security ramifications. As he nears the end of his walk, and his life, he wonders: will there ever be a redemption, a homecoming? Redolent of the soil and the spirit of Punjab, The Long Walk Home is as much one man`s odyssey through tumultuous times as it is an elegiac meditation on the passing of a way of life, on faith and fundamentalism and misguided passions.

The Long Walk Home

The Hunt for Kohinoor

Earning the Laundry Stripes chronicles Noor s journey of discovery: of self as afloat in a sea of men, of her own ways to survive in a dichotomous society, at once in transition yet mired in the past, where a rich urban woman can buy sex while a village woman will get her nose sliced for daring to converse with a strange man; and of a people, divided by their multiple faiths, yet united by commerce

A Woman's Adventures in Hindustan Lever's All-boys Sales Club

Earning the Laundry Stripes

Juhi Jha - ambitious and naive Leela Lakshmi - talented, tenacious single mother Reshma Talwar - hotshot young executive As the women bond over work, navigating their secret pasts, disapproving landladies, abusive bosses and roadside stalkers, they discover that the city - fuelled by hungry aspirants and a real-estate boom - might not be the refuge they seek. One pouring night in Bengaluru, their worst fears come true: one person is dead and the rest are suspects... Girls and the City by Manreet Sodhi Someshwar is an unputdownable read about the big little lies we deploy to hide our dirty little secrets.

Manreet Sodhi Someshwar

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