Name: Witness the Night
ISBN: 9781905636853

Kishwar Desai

Winner of the 2010 Costa First Novel Award, this is a highly atmospheric mystery set in India, with the controversial subject of female foeticide at the fore. In a small town in the heart of India, a young girl is found tied to a bed inside a townhouse where 13 people lie dead. The girl is alive, but only just. She is arrested for the murders she is believed to have committed. Visiting social worker Simran attempts to break through the girl's mute trance to discover the truth. Hauntingly real and beautifully atmospheric, this ia a major debut.

Witness the Night

Kireth Sandhu

A hauntingly grim representation of the real issues within India. Desai smartly explores the the corrupting effects of the patriarchy and culture whilst adhering to hard-boiled detective tropes. Simran Singh is a lonely, cynical alcoholic who becomes surrounded by a web of characters with intriguing motives and backstories, all whilst the plot trods along in discovering the truth behind a family murder with the sole survivor being a fourteen year-old girl. The chapters felt dense, particularly because each opened with a diary entry from Durga and concluded with an email correspondence. Whilst the writing did feel overbearing at times, the harsh realness of the content matter cannot be denied and the shadowy, conspiratorial way the story wraps itself around the reader was dangerously exciting.