Ela

by Sampurna Chattarji

Ela has everything a girl might need. Great friends, cool parents, no pressure to over-achieve and all the space to be herself. On her thirteenth birthday, her perfect world falls apart when she discovers the truth has been kept secret from her.

What happens to Ela as she spirals into rage and grief? Who are the mysterious boy and the giant bird? Will she save herself?

Coming up - a compelling novel from Sampurna Chattarji in which the stark realism of growing up crosses over into the realm of fantasy.

228 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2013

About the author

Although born in Ethiopia Sampurna Chattarji grew up in Darjeeling, India and graduated in English Literature from New Delhi. She worked in advertising for 7 years before becoming a full time writer in 1999.

She is a poet, novelist and translator. Her nine published books include three poetry collections— Absent Muses, The Fried Frog and Sight May Strike You Blind; and two novels— Rupture and Land of the Well. Her translation of Abol Tabol: The Nonsense World of Sukumar Ray is now a Puffin Classic titled Wordygurdyboom! Her poetry has been translated into German, Swiss-German, Irish, Scots, Welsh, French, Tamil, Manipuri and Bambaiyya; and her children’s fiction into Welsh and Icelandic.

Sampurna is the editor of Sweeping the Front Yard, an anthology of women’s writing in English, Malayalam, Telugu and Urdu. She was the 2012 Charles Wallace writer-in-residence at the University of Kent, Canterbury.

More about her writing can be found at sampurnachattarji.wordpress.com.

Reviews

[Debjani Banerji · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ela is the first Young Adult Book that i have read cover to cover.

It is a book, that makes you face your inner fears and very very modern in approach.

Adoption is a part of life these days, and if treated with naturalness, and without any of the taboos or secrets, it is as natural as the way life is.

Kudos Sampurna we all have faced inner fears in our pre teens, childhood. This is one book, the YA generation is certainly going to identify with.

[Srishti Bhargava · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was gifted this novel a while back and never got around to reading it. Recently, I've been devouring the untouched collection on my bookshelf and I finally came across this book and was unable to put it down until I was done. From the language used to the content, it's a brilliantly constructed book. The thoughts and feelings of the narrator are so easily conveyed and relatable even now when I've left my teen years behind. This was an absolutely beautiful book and I would definitely recommend you give it a read!

[Zeny · Rating 4 out of 5]

I would suggest it to anyone who wants to fill up their bookshelf. It is a good book from what I read and I'll definitely give it 4 stars. Not 5 because frankly the storyline was not so interesting. Though the way Sampurna chattarji wrote about Ela's experience is outstanding. I'll count it as one of the books I've read but not re-readable, atleast for me. Hope my review helped you.

[Reshmi S · Rating 3 out of 5]

I got this book from a children's #literature festival at a school.

It's a story about a girl Ela, who finds out that she is adopted on her thirteenth birthday.

The author has put in a lot of work to showcase the emotions Ela goes through and there is a parallel narrative running along the story.

It's a book which can help to understand what children go through when they realize the truth that they are adopted.

[Zita Szigeti · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting book on the topic of adoption from a teenage girl's perspective, challenged by the Indian traditional views on family, caste, and relationships.

[Ed Goodbooks · Rating 4 out of 5]

Anil Menon reviews the book on Goodbooks: "Since a family is what a child completes, what is true of families is also a truth about its children. So, while all happy children are alike, each unhappy child is unhappy in her own way. These children come in many forms: lost children, lonely children, buried children, children with broken wings, and children forever suspended in flight. Sampurna Chattarji’s marvellous novel Ela is about a teenage girl who discovers that she’d been adopted as a baby. The wonderful people Ela had thought of as her family isn’t her biological family. Her parents Smita and Mahesh try to explain. Her beloved aunt Jaya tries to explain. But there’s no explaining away the inexplicable fact that, well-intentioned or not, everyone who knew, everyone who should have known better, had conspired to keep her ignorant of the truth." Click here to read the full review: http://goodbooks.in/node/7321