Backflap: One and Three Quarters

Young Pitambar reluctantly limps his way to a ramshackle school to please his unlettered father. Looking for a formula to get rich, he chances upon the secret affair between the school principal and the music teacher, and using the magic wand of blackmail, finds his way to the local politician’s office, landing a henchman’s job. Next step, he is on a fast-track to the Mantralaya in Mumbai. Part social satire, part fable, this book is a commentary on the moral decrepitude that ails post-Independence India.

The Outsiders

by Devi Yesodharan.

Penguin Random House. Pages 254. Rs 399

Nita is desperate for a better-paying job and accepts one in Dubai. It is the 1990s, and Dubai is becoming a boom town. Nita struggles to adjust. Her job as a live-in tutor for a young girl puts her in an unfamiliar, servile role with a wealthy family. Nita starts telling the child’s mother a story from ancient India, where Darius, a sailor, arrives at a port seeking his fortune. As she tells this tale, making it up as she goes, she finds that she’s no longer alone. This is a two-headed story, with narrators Nita and Darius nested inside each other like Russian dolls.

Burial of Hearts

by Shania Sarup. Rupa. Pages 288. Rs 395

‘Burial of Hearts’ is inspired by the true story of Sir Digvijaysinhji Ranjitsinhji Jadeja, who offered refuge to Jewish children during World War-II. Silana’s quiet, cushioned life in Poland is shattered when her father calls the Gestapo on his own family. She seeks shelter in colonial India. Here, Tara is outraged when her father, the Maharaja of Bramsadha, opens the gates of their Summer Palace to war refugees. Silana and Tara embark on a journey that forever alters the course of their lives. Their unlikely friendship emerges as a testament to the transformative power of empathy.