Journalist-turned-writer Pinki Virani examines the crisis which underlies the facade of progressive modernity that is present-day India through a set of characters you may have met. If not directly, then through the six degrees of separation which thread together this story of a life-changing weekend. The voice is that of Saraswati, librarian and collector of curious facts, who dies among her beloved books on Thursday evening. Until her body is discovered on Monday, her spirit is free to play sutradhar and watch over all she holds dear: her sister Damayanti, wife of a superstar; Tisca, heroine spurned by a rising star; Qudsia Begum, Bangalore beautician and wise mother; Czaerandhari, erstwhile maharani and sms-addict; hard-talking journalist Nafisa, does she hide a secret? Yet: Saraswati's stories are not only about women who wait for their idea of heaven to happen. There is the wily husband of Bhagyalakshmi, scooty-driving bank-employee transposed from cultured Chennai to dusty Delhi. And in Bombay, the two men who leave Manya bleeding; her rightwing father and right-thinking twin brother. And yet: Saraswati's stories are not about the men who eclipse the happiness of their women. They are about a society where the forces of Olde Bharat battle with India. Where change has to be wrested from tradition, often with calamitous effects. And where hope constantly chafes against the trepidation of socio-political chaos. This is fiction that dares to subvert form, structure and expectations to hold up a mirror to a nation at tipping point.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Bombay-born Pinki Virani was eighteen when she started work as a typist. She then took on the job of a beat reporter and rose to become India's first woman editor of an eveninger. She divides her time between Bombay, Delhi and Pune and is married to senior journalist Shankkar Aiyar; they have chosen to be childfree. Pinki Virani is the author of three bestselling nonfiction titles: Aruna's Story, Once Was Bombay and Bitter Chocolate. The fi rst book continues to be read in genderstudy courses, the second by sociology specialists (it was also referred to by an Indian prime minister in his speech on collapsing cities). The third book on child sexual abuse in middle and upper-class homes earned her international plaudit for being the first in the Indian subcontinent to courageously speak up as a victim of incest, and was honoured with a National Award by the government of India.Deaf Heaven is Pinki Virani's first work of fiction. Her second, Bloody Hell, is being written as both, a literary diptych and a stand-alone novel.