Monday, June 15, 2009

Pg. 69: Shilpa Agarwal's "Haunting Bombay"

The current feature at the Page 69 Test: Haunting Bombay by Shilpa Agarwal.

About the book, from the publisher:
After her mother's death crossing the border from Pakistan to India during Partition, baby Pinky was taken in by her grandmother, Maji, the matriarch of the powerful Mittal family. Now thirteen-years-old, Pinky lives with her grandmother and her uncle's family in a bungalow on the Malabar Heights in Bombay. While she has never really been accepted by her uncle's family, she has always had Maji's love.

One day, as monsoons engulf the city, Pinky opens a mysteriously bolted door, unleashing the ghost of an infant who drowned shortly before Pinky's arrival and of the nursemaid in whose charge the child was. Three generations of the Mittal family must struggle to come to terms with their secrets amidst hidden shame, forbidden love, and a call for absolute sacrifice.
Watch the Haunting Bombay trailer, and learn more about the book and author at Shilpa Agarwal's website, blog, and Facebook page.

Shilpa Agarwal was born in Bombay and currently lives in Los Angeles. She is a graduate of Duke University and UCLA and has taught at both UCLA and UC Santa Barbara. As an unpublished novel, Haunting Bombay won the 2003 First Words Literary Prize for South Asian Writers. It is her first novel.

The Page 69 Test: Haunting Bombay.

--Marshal Zeringue