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Moth
Ma and Bappu are liberal intellectuals teaching at the local university. Their fourteen year-old daughter—precocious, headstrong Alma—is soon to be married. Alma is mostly interested in the wedding shoes and in spinning wild stories for her beloved younger sister Roop, a restless child obsessed with death.
Times are bad for girls in India. The long-awaited independence from British rule is heralding a new era of hope but also of anger and distrust. Political unrest is brewing, threatening to unravel the rich tapestry of Delhi—a city where different cultures, religions and traditions have co-existed for centuries. When Partition happens and the British Raj is fractured overnight, the family is violently torn apart, and its members are forced to find increasingly desperate ways to survive.
Times are bad for girls in India. The long-awaited independence from British rule is heralding a new era of hope but also of anger and distrust. Political unrest is brewing, threatening to unravel the rich tapestry of Delhi—a city where different cultures, religions and traditions have co-existed for centuries. When Partition happens and the British Raj is fractured overnight, the family is violently torn apart, and its members are forced to find increasingly desperate ways to survive.
368 pages, Hardcover
First published June 24, 2021
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 286 reviews
April 22, 2022
Melody Razak has achieved so much with her debut novel.
We learn about the collapse of the British Raj and the Partition. I did not understand it all, but equally did not want to. I was more interested in how these events were told through the eyes of a family caught up in it all.
The author does this so well. She plunges us into a family’s world; of smells, colours, tastes, delicacies, basic meals; their places in the Caste and political systems; their hopes and dreams, uncertainties; and now and again we enter gardens of exotic blooms and fragrances.
We get to know the brutality that is sweeping across India. We wait for the brutality to reach the family. It hits with a punch. Why can humans be so cruel?
‘Grief can undo a person. It can unspool the intricate mechanisms of their heart.’
There is some form of resolve, just…
We learn about the collapse of the British Raj and the Partition. I did not understand it all, but equally did not want to. I was more interested in how these events were told through the eyes of a family caught up in it all.
The author does this so well. She plunges us into a family’s world; of smells, colours, tastes, delicacies, basic meals; their places in the Caste and political systems; their hopes and dreams, uncertainties; and now and again we enter gardens of exotic blooms and fragrances.
We get to know the brutality that is sweeping across India. We wait for the brutality to reach the family. It hits with a punch. Why can humans be so cruel?
‘Grief can undo a person. It can unspool the intricate mechanisms of their heart.’
There is some form of resolve, just…
March 27, 2024
https://www.instagram.com/p/CoFUXxjrv...
An unflinchingly haunting portrayal of division, borders, brutality, and resilience. Told through the reflections of a family collapsing alongside their town and nation, we see the terrible consequences of choices made in haste, of the building of resentment and fervor, of the unequal balance of power. We also see the desperate effort to hold onto one another, to grasp on to the past, the endless terrible futures that could have been, that should be. We see the love of a family as it burns to cinder, reignites; we see through powerful and gorgeous prose the strength of love and conviction, of forgiveness and returning home. A shockingly beautiful and heartbreaking debut.
An unflinchingly haunting portrayal of division, borders, brutality, and resilience. Told through the reflections of a family collapsing alongside their town and nation, we see the terrible consequences of choices made in haste, of the building of resentment and fervor, of the unequal balance of power. We also see the desperate effort to hold onto one another, to grasp on to the past, the endless terrible futures that could have been, that should be. We see the love of a family as it burns to cinder, reignites; we see through powerful and gorgeous prose the strength of love and conviction, of forgiveness and returning home. A shockingly beautiful and heartbreaking debut.
June 14, 2022
He remembers a train journey with his pa when he was a boy. The first time he has left the city. From Delhi to Madras. How he had leant out of the open dsoor, wind striking his face and body, exhilarated by the speeding landscape of temple town and market. Sacred shrines and connecting rivers. Buffalo submerged in muddy waters and rows of dusty cornfields. Holy cows tethered. He had known then the value of his ancient homelands: that India was many complexities of tribe and dialect and ritual woven together, an inextricable fabric of pulsating life. How could anyone put borders on that?
I read this book due to its longlisting for the 2022 Desmond Elliott Prize for debut novelists, although I had been aware of it as it featured on the influential Observer Best Debut Novelists of the Year feature for 2021 alongside such other successful and impressive books as “Little Scratch” (2021 Desmond Elliott Prize shortlist), “Open Water” (2021 Desmond Elliott Prize longlist, Costa First Novel Award winner), “Lear Wife” and “Assembly” (also on the 2022 Desmond Elliott Prize and for me the best novel of 2021).
I read the book in hardback and feel sorry for anyone who read it on Kindle as the hardback book itself is an absolute work of art with a cutaway cover and beautiful front and end paper illustrations.
The book itself is, by the standards of this year’s Desmond Elliott’s Prize pretty conventional – one that gains its strength from both the harrowing portrayal it gives of the period of history it portrays (India at the time of partition in 1947-8) and the memorable cast of characters in the Delhi household which lives through the trauma of that time, rather than so much from the relatively conventional if atmospheric writing.
Perhaps unusually the author of the book has more of an emotional/travel connection to India than a familial one – with an Iranian born mother and estranged father from Pakistan, was born and grew up in London, worked as a pastry chef/café owner, took an MA in Creative writing and came to the topic of Partition originally through a Radio 4 programme – which made her determined to give a voice to what she saw as the lost voices of the women caught up in the traumas and horrors of the time via rap and abduction.
The novel was heavily researched – including via fiction covering the era and via a lengthy immersive trip to India. And perhaps as a result and particularly early on in the novel, I felt like what the book gained in authenticity it lacked in originality – so much so that some of the early parts felt a little like a pastiche of the familiar Anglo-Indian novel with many of the familiar tropes. Whereas perhaps I had hoped for a slightly more askance/different take on the time (although of course with all the risk that would have given of accusations of appropriation).
The Delhi household itself is a Brahmin household of two University lecturers.
Bappu/Bhai is a rather timid dreamer - increasingly unable to reconcile his idealistic view of a tolerant household and society with the terrible sectarian hatred and violence around him. His one moment of bravery was went he went with bribes to rescue the house cook Dilchain from her in-laws after her abusive husband burnt himself to death trying to kill her – a rescue motivated partly by principle and partly by love of her cooking and which leads to some unrequired love for him from Dilchain (who as the higher caste family members lose their way in the horrors of partition increasingly leads the family from below).
Ma/Tanisi was orphaned when young, and bought up by her Uncle on a houseboat in Kashmir where she learnt the Urdu she now teaches (both at University and to the sons of a well known local Muslim – both positions becoming increasingly untenable) and of which she, with her blue eyes, still dreams as well as remembering her infatuation with her Uncle which she seems to find echoed more in the father of her charges than in her husband. Tanisi and her Uncle are (I think) of the Pir Ali caste (which I think from some research is associated with the poet Tagore and seen as heretical by pure Brahmins).
Both live with Daddee Ma – Bappu’s mother – now a bitter and bigoted old woman after the loss of her husband and many babies.
Their two daughters are Alma – fourteen years old, prone to wearing a red apple clip. Much of the early part of the book is implicitly told from her viewpoint, giving it something of a young adult feel initially. Due to concerns for the safety of unmarried girls, Daddee Ma arranges an overly hasty marriage for her, including clumsily faking her astrological chart. Alma herself is somewhat obsessed with the world of Djinn’s and gods and of legends and transfers some of this to imagined visions of her promised husband.
The younger daughter Roop is something of a psychopath in the making - prone to pulling the wings of insects or otherwise torturing them and to an obsession with blood and death.
The final member of the household is a Muslim Ayah who Bappu in his idealism allows to stay in the house longer than is safe for anyone.
The back cover blurb says “When Partition happens and the British Raj is fractured overnight, the wonderful family we have come to love is violently torn apart” – which I have to say was certainly not my take on the novel as I struggle to see that many (or any) of the characters were loveable (and some very much the opposite). For me it would be more accurate to say that the terrible ordeal the family lives through drove my sympathy for what would otherwise be a fairly unlikeable, privileged group.
Later Alma retakes over the implicit narration – having been forced to grow up very quickly with the novel now very far from a young adult one. Further as a dramatic opening to the novel makes clear, her particular circumstances allow for a clever metaphor for the horrors and sacrifice involved in the traumatic birth pains of the new nations.
Overall a worthwhile addition to the longlist – even if it seemed slightly out of place in its relative conventionality.
October 10, 2022
One word sums up this book for me: childish.Childish writing,childish,simplistic,cliched approach of a pivotal moment in India.
May 14, 2024
My late friend Allan Segal, who made television documentaries--including a famous one about India’s partition and independence for Granada's End of Empire series--blamed England for the unimaginable violence that ensued, following its hasty 1947 withdrawal from its former colony. The divide-and-conquer policies initiated by the British East India Company and continued under the Raj fomented radical nationalism among Hindus and Muslims.
The redrawing of borders (in the space of a mere five weeks!) by a British lawyer who knew nothing about India, necessitated the mass migration of fourteen million people. Trains leaving Hindu-majority India for Muslim-majority East or West Pakistan were derailed and ambushed, passengers murdered, their bodies dismembered and defiled. The same happened to trains heading in the opposite direction. Ghost trains, they were called.
Some two million people died, and the trauma lives on in their survivors and descendants. In addition, an estimated 75,000 to 100,000 women were kidnapped and raped during Partition. Some were forcibly converted to their abductor’s religion and coerced into marriage. A pact signed in Delhi in 1950 sought to find and repatriate these women, but many of them didn’t want to go home. They were afraid they’d be killed by their own families for having dishonored them.
Melody Razak tells this story in Moth, her remarkable debut novel. A pastry chef and café owner, she was inspired to go for an MFA in her forties after listening to elderly survivors recount their experiences on a radio program, Partition Voices, (ah, BBC Radio 4 . . .) “It wasn’t just about the political and geographical rupture in India,”she said in an interview for the Telegraph of India, “It was ruptures between families, between friends, between people because there was so much love there. And that was kind of ripped apart.”
And so this British-Iranian woman immersed herself in the history and literature of the period: fixing on objects ( a cooking pot, a quilt sewn with tiny mirrors, resembling a sea of stars), talismans of an entire world that is about to be destroyed. We are thrown into a community of rich and unique characters, Hindu and Muslim, Brahmin and lower-caste, male and female, children and adults. The cherished daughter of an intellectual Brahmin family, Alma, just fourteen and about to be married off when the novel begins, is the main character. Intelligent, observant, compassionate, yet convincingly adolescent, she is an ideal guide, but the two characters whom I found most compelling were Roop, Alma's feral five-year-old sister, and her Kashmiri mother, Ma, a woman ". . . almost too advanced for her age, too intelligent, too liberal," as Razak said in that Telegraph of India interview, "[who] was always going to be punished for just being 100 years too early. She was going to get burnt. Because there was no society to help hold a woman like her at that point in time,”
I deeply mourn the loss of Moth's imaginative world--a powerful testament to Razak’s assertion, in her Acknowledgements, “that the telling and sharing of stories, both oral and written, is our route to salvation.” Alas, the hatred and violence that surround us today, here in America and in the post-colonial world, leads me to despair that salvation will ever arrive.
The redrawing of borders (in the space of a mere five weeks!) by a British lawyer who knew nothing about India, necessitated the mass migration of fourteen million people. Trains leaving Hindu-majority India for Muslim-majority East or West Pakistan were derailed and ambushed, passengers murdered, their bodies dismembered and defiled. The same happened to trains heading in the opposite direction. Ghost trains, they were called.
Some two million people died, and the trauma lives on in their survivors and descendants. In addition, an estimated 75,000 to 100,000 women were kidnapped and raped during Partition. Some were forcibly converted to their abductor’s religion and coerced into marriage. A pact signed in Delhi in 1950 sought to find and repatriate these women, but many of them didn’t want to go home. They were afraid they’d be killed by their own families for having dishonored them.
Melody Razak tells this story in Moth, her remarkable debut novel. A pastry chef and café owner, she was inspired to go for an MFA in her forties after listening to elderly survivors recount their experiences on a radio program, Partition Voices, (ah, BBC Radio 4 . . .) “It wasn’t just about the political and geographical rupture in India,”she said in an interview for the Telegraph of India, “It was ruptures between families, between friends, between people because there was so much love there. And that was kind of ripped apart.”
And so this British-Iranian woman immersed herself in the history and literature of the period: fixing on objects ( a cooking pot, a quilt sewn with tiny mirrors, resembling a sea of stars), talismans of an entire world that is about to be destroyed. We are thrown into a community of rich and unique characters, Hindu and Muslim, Brahmin and lower-caste, male and female, children and adults. The cherished daughter of an intellectual Brahmin family, Alma, just fourteen and about to be married off when the novel begins, is the main character. Intelligent, observant, compassionate, yet convincingly adolescent, she is an ideal guide, but the two characters whom I found most compelling were Roop, Alma's feral five-year-old sister, and her Kashmiri mother, Ma, a woman ". . . almost too advanced for her age, too intelligent, too liberal," as Razak said in that Telegraph of India interview, "[who] was always going to be punished for just being 100 years too early. She was going to get burnt. Because there was no society to help hold a woman like her at that point in time,”
I deeply mourn the loss of Moth's imaginative world--a powerful testament to Razak’s assertion, in her Acknowledgements, “that the telling and sharing of stories, both oral and written, is our route to salvation.” Alas, the hatred and violence that surround us today, here in America and in the post-colonial world, leads me to despair that salvation will ever arrive.
August 9, 2021
Moth is the best novel I have read in ages. From the first page I was captivated by the intimacy of the voice and the lyricism of the prose. Intimations of violence are also present from the first page and this creates a powerful sense of dread which builds and builds through the expertly structured story. I cared deeply about the characters who are conveyed with great richness of personality and needs. I am ashamed to say that I knew almost nothing about Partition until I heard the BBC Radio 4 series 'Partition Voices' which I see another reviewer has mentioned here as a starting point for the author's work on this subject. The radio series increased my knowledge of this traumatic period of history, and though it was hard to listen to many of the contributions from survivors of the violence, it taught me a great deal. Moth does what all the best historical fiction always does: it takes a subject which is almost incomprehensible when viewed as the 'big picture' and shares it as a human story - the story of a family, which is of course the story of a nation as well, and a story of the extensive crimes of the British Empire, and the story of where we are now, today.
August 4, 2024
I have read many wonderful, very literary novels related to India’s Partition. While at first this one seemed a little too YA for me, this novel of the violent, bloody tragedy that was Partition grew very much on me the more I read it. The main characters are members of an upper-caste Hindu family living in Delhi. The parents are both professionals – the mother is a professor of Urdu, which results in issues for her. Their older daughter really just wants to be married to the man she has only met for a moment, and their younger daughter is unfocused and malleable. There are other interesting characters in this household, including a typically extremely traditional and manipulative mother-in-law, a wealthy aunt who is good of heart but doesn’t always make the best choices, a Muslim ayah and a very religious Hindu cook. The violence, tragedy and disruption of everyday life begins before Partition and escalates thereafter. The different challenges faced by each character and their responses are quite well portrayed. Then the older daughter is abducted from a train, and the family is thrown into further depths of horror. (I should point out that although the characters in the novel are Hindu, the violence on all sides was made very clear.)
This was not (in my opinion) a true literary novel, but the story was told powerfully and movingly - - so powerfully that I actually had a dream of being abducted. I think that means the author did her job very well!
This was not (in my opinion) a true literary novel, but the story was told powerfully and movingly - - so powerfully that I actually had a dream of being abducted. I think that means the author did her job very well!
dnf
July 8, 2022Gave this a shot but it wasn’t my sort of thing (quite teachy about Indian history in a way that felt quite forced) or the type of book I’m in the mood for right now.
July 2, 2021
Moth by Melody Razak was published June 24th with Weidenfeld & Nicolson (W&N Books) with The Observer describing it as ‘powerful and heartbreaking.’ I finished reading Moth with a lump in my throat and my mind in turmoil.
Melody Razak felt inspired to write Moth after listening to a Radio 4 programme called ‘Partition Voices’. The emotion of the speakers caught her unexpectedly and she felt very much compelled to do further research. She explored in more depth the history of India’s partition and the scale of the brutality inflicted on all sides, focussing in particular on the women. Melody Razak took her research very seriously travelling to India and living there for a year while writing Moth
“Everything I experienced – from the architecture, people, landscape, colour (the food!), the places of worship and daily religious rituals – is filtered into the novel’s minutiae."
Immersing herself in the culture resulted in a very credible story as Melody Razak brings the characters of Moth very much alive for the reader. This is the tale of a family that is torn asunder by the unexpected atrocities inflicted during Partition, a family that had a standing in society, two intellectual parents and their young daughters Alma and Roop.
Alma: the beating heart of the novel. We meet her as a precocious 14-year old who becomes entangled with the chaos of Partition with devastating consequences
Roop: Alma’s younger sister. Obsessed with death, she is a fierce, funny and rather wild child trying to make sense of the destruction that has befallen her family
Ma and Bappu: their dream of an independent India collapses under the weight of History. Ma’s experience mirrors that of the many Indian women who were hoping for new freedom under an independent India – and had to face more harassment and insecurity instead
And many more: the Muslim nanny, forced to hide in a water tank; the widowed house-keeper whose mission is to keep the family together; the old grandmother, obsessed with the family’s honour and determined to preserve it no matter the cost… (From the Publisher)
Alma, 14-years of age, is a young girl on the cusp of marriage. The impending wedding was swiftly arranged for her safety, with young women becoming targets of extremely violent attacks. Her parents are not particularly happy about her being married at such a young age but, with the newspapers and the media so full of stories of the terrifying acts of violence against women, they believe that marriage will keep Alma safe. Alma is a child with colourful clips in her hair. Still in school, she is dreaming about the lovely new shoes she will wear on her wedding day. Her suitor is a young man training to be a doctor.
Her younger sister Roop is a free spirited individual with a very quirky personality. Roop sees the world very differently from others in her family. She fears nothing, has a peculiar relationship with death and, as the story progresses, she becomes very important to the family’s survival.
Ma and Bappu had a modern approach to marriage that was outside the norm for many. Ma worked in the university and Bappu was accepting of this. They were very much equals in their marriage and, also, very tolerant of others, no matter religious differences. As the impending Independence and Partition loomed, they became concerned for their country. The radio and the papers were full of the horror stories of women being subjected to the most unimaginable suffering on all sides. Rape, abduction and mutilation was inflicted on what is thought to be approximately 75,000 women and young girls. With mass migration across borders, it is estimated that approximately 14 million people abandoned their homes in the summer and autumn of 1947, (Hindu-majority to India and Muslim-majority to Pakistan). Women were violently attacked, leaving their death and devastation exposed as a warning to others. The sheer scale is really difficult to grasp, but Melody Razak offers a unique insight by bringing the reader into the home of Ma, Bappu, Alma and Roop.
Ma & Bappu do their best to shield Roop and Alma from the horrors beyond their walls, but the sounds infiltrate their every thought. As the days pass their freedom becomes more curtailed and their future takes on a very different hue. To protect their family they take a few different measures but, with the city and the country in complete turmoil, the family is ultimately affected in the most unimaginable way and their peaceful life is destroyed forever.
Melody Razak has brought the terror of many during Partition so completely alive. The treatment & abuse of women on both sides is incomprehensible. When she began writing Moth the concept of freedom was very important to her story
“The concept of ‘freedom’ – crucial to India’s Independence and one that lies at the heart of Moth – was to my mind a concept that was not only denied but perhaps even mocked by Partition. The borders created by religious intolerance and the ties of hate and violence cut so much deeper than those created by geography or politics: these were the lines that would scar far beyond the arbitrarily drawn borders.”
Moth is a story of resilience & courage. It is a very forceful read, one that is both heart-breaking and fascinating. I was, and am, very ignorant of those years in India’s history. The brutality and inhumanity of man against man is unimaginable to my mind. In creating this close-knit family with all their eccentricities and foibles, Melody Razak gives the reader a snapshot into a time when there was so much dread, so much pain, yet the domestic rituals were maintained where possible to instil a sense of normality and to help cope with the intense fear that lingered in the mind of all.
Moth is at times a very challenging read posing many questions to the reader and offering insights into a world that is far beyond the comprehension of many of us. There is strength and a beauty in Melody Razak’s narrative. It really is quite difficult to believe that this is a debut novel. Her attention to detail, the dialogue, the sense of time and place is really quite remarkable.
Moth is a book that needs to be read, that should be read. An important book Moth highlights the bitter rivalries that developed as friend turned on friend and neighbour on neighbour. An extraordinary tale written with a stunning pen Moth is a debut that I highly recommend to all. I am looking forward to more exceptional writing from Melody Razak and I am very intrigued as to where she will take us next….
Melody Razak felt inspired to write Moth after listening to a Radio 4 programme called ‘Partition Voices’. The emotion of the speakers caught her unexpectedly and she felt very much compelled to do further research. She explored in more depth the history of India’s partition and the scale of the brutality inflicted on all sides, focussing in particular on the women. Melody Razak took her research very seriously travelling to India and living there for a year while writing Moth
“Everything I experienced – from the architecture, people, landscape, colour (the food!), the places of worship and daily religious rituals – is filtered into the novel’s minutiae."
Immersing herself in the culture resulted in a very credible story as Melody Razak brings the characters of Moth very much alive for the reader. This is the tale of a family that is torn asunder by the unexpected atrocities inflicted during Partition, a family that had a standing in society, two intellectual parents and their young daughters Alma and Roop.
Alma: the beating heart of the novel. We meet her as a precocious 14-year old who becomes entangled with the chaos of Partition with devastating consequences
Roop: Alma’s younger sister. Obsessed with death, she is a fierce, funny and rather wild child trying to make sense of the destruction that has befallen her family
Ma and Bappu: their dream of an independent India collapses under the weight of History. Ma’s experience mirrors that of the many Indian women who were hoping for new freedom under an independent India – and had to face more harassment and insecurity instead
And many more: the Muslim nanny, forced to hide in a water tank; the widowed house-keeper whose mission is to keep the family together; the old grandmother, obsessed with the family’s honour and determined to preserve it no matter the cost… (From the Publisher)
Alma, 14-years of age, is a young girl on the cusp of marriage. The impending wedding was swiftly arranged for her safety, with young women becoming targets of extremely violent attacks. Her parents are not particularly happy about her being married at such a young age but, with the newspapers and the media so full of stories of the terrifying acts of violence against women, they believe that marriage will keep Alma safe. Alma is a child with colourful clips in her hair. Still in school, she is dreaming about the lovely new shoes she will wear on her wedding day. Her suitor is a young man training to be a doctor.
Her younger sister Roop is a free spirited individual with a very quirky personality. Roop sees the world very differently from others in her family. She fears nothing, has a peculiar relationship with death and, as the story progresses, she becomes very important to the family’s survival.
Ma and Bappu had a modern approach to marriage that was outside the norm for many. Ma worked in the university and Bappu was accepting of this. They were very much equals in their marriage and, also, very tolerant of others, no matter religious differences. As the impending Independence and Partition loomed, they became concerned for their country. The radio and the papers were full of the horror stories of women being subjected to the most unimaginable suffering on all sides. Rape, abduction and mutilation was inflicted on what is thought to be approximately 75,000 women and young girls. With mass migration across borders, it is estimated that approximately 14 million people abandoned their homes in the summer and autumn of 1947, (Hindu-majority to India and Muslim-majority to Pakistan). Women were violently attacked, leaving their death and devastation exposed as a warning to others. The sheer scale is really difficult to grasp, but Melody Razak offers a unique insight by bringing the reader into the home of Ma, Bappu, Alma and Roop.
Ma & Bappu do their best to shield Roop and Alma from the horrors beyond their walls, but the sounds infiltrate their every thought. As the days pass their freedom becomes more curtailed and their future takes on a very different hue. To protect their family they take a few different measures but, with the city and the country in complete turmoil, the family is ultimately affected in the most unimaginable way and their peaceful life is destroyed forever.
Melody Razak has brought the terror of many during Partition so completely alive. The treatment & abuse of women on both sides is incomprehensible. When she began writing Moth the concept of freedom was very important to her story
“The concept of ‘freedom’ – crucial to India’s Independence and one that lies at the heart of Moth – was to my mind a concept that was not only denied but perhaps even mocked by Partition. The borders created by religious intolerance and the ties of hate and violence cut so much deeper than those created by geography or politics: these were the lines that would scar far beyond the arbitrarily drawn borders.”
Moth is a story of resilience & courage. It is a very forceful read, one that is both heart-breaking and fascinating. I was, and am, very ignorant of those years in India’s history. The brutality and inhumanity of man against man is unimaginable to my mind. In creating this close-knit family with all their eccentricities and foibles, Melody Razak gives the reader a snapshot into a time when there was so much dread, so much pain, yet the domestic rituals were maintained where possible to instil a sense of normality and to help cope with the intense fear that lingered in the mind of all.
Moth is at times a very challenging read posing many questions to the reader and offering insights into a world that is far beyond the comprehension of many of us. There is strength and a beauty in Melody Razak’s narrative. It really is quite difficult to believe that this is a debut novel. Her attention to detail, the dialogue, the sense of time and place is really quite remarkable.
Moth is a book that needs to be read, that should be read. An important book Moth highlights the bitter rivalries that developed as friend turned on friend and neighbour on neighbour. An extraordinary tale written with a stunning pen Moth is a debut that I highly recommend to all. I am looking forward to more exceptional writing from Melody Razak and I am very intrigued as to where she will take us next….
February 3, 2023
💫A must read for those who are looking for books on the partition, communal riots, discrimination and certain behaviour towards women including discrimination, assault and harm which is still quite common
💫If you enjoyed reading Train to Pakistan, I feel you will enjoy this book as well
The writing is mature and written in a way that would make you know the characters slowly yet realistically. It might take time to get into the plot and know the characters better but I would say it’s worth it.
You will go back to the 1940s during the time of partition and communal riots. You will face the real scenario how women were treated outside their homes. This story will give you a real picture of how things got worse and how families got torn apart. I was sad throughout the read but also this book gave me much affirmation on how things got better since then.
💫If you enjoyed reading Train to Pakistan, I feel you will enjoy this book as well
The writing is mature and written in a way that would make you know the characters slowly yet realistically. It might take time to get into the plot and know the characters better but I would say it’s worth it.
You will go back to the 1940s during the time of partition and communal riots. You will face the real scenario how women were treated outside their homes. This story will give you a real picture of how things got worse and how families got torn apart. I was sad throughout the read but also this book gave me much affirmation on how things got better since then.
May 4, 2022
Moth was my final book, of 10, from the Desmond Elliott long list. This has been an excellent list of debut novels that I have really enjoyed working my way through over the last few weeks.
Moth is mostly set in 1947 and in India as the country prepares for, experiences and then suffers the aftermath of Partition. It is, at times, a harrowing book to read. The opening pages, a prologue, set the scene and the tone as a young woman walks through a rainy night carrying her baby in one hand and a knife in the other. There is the immediate threat of violence. This sense of approaching darkness and danger never really leaves the narrative.
There is an interview with Razak at telegraphindia.com in which she explains why she wrote this book and how she came to the book’s title:
And:
And this feeling of things falling apart is very dominant in the book. Our focus is a Brahmin family, mother and father both lecturers at the local university. This immediately tells you something about the family at that time, and the mother experiences plenty of discrimination because she is not a man. The family is preparing for the wedding of their young daughter, Alma, a wedding they are not sure is a good idea but which they feel they need to proceed with to protect her. Because all around them, the threat of violence is continually growing as Partition approaches.
The book is full of memorable characters. Alma’s sister, Roop, is memorable for perhaps the wrong reasons: a very young girl who shows all the signs of being some kind of psychopath! But the rest of the family, including servants, is brought to life very vividly as are the events of Partition.
Whilst it is Partition that drives the book forward, the focus is predominantly on the women. The Guardian review finishes by saying: With its unflinching focus on violence against women, her strong, captivating debut tells a story that is at once firmly rooted in a time and place and yet pressingly relevant to the here and now.
This is not a cheerful book to read. In fact, it is exactly the opposite. But it shines a light into an area I confess to knowing little about, which is always a good thing.
Moth is mostly set in 1947 and in India as the country prepares for, experiences and then suffers the aftermath of Partition. It is, at times, a harrowing book to read. The opening pages, a prologue, set the scene and the tone as a young woman walks through a rainy night carrying her baby in one hand and a knife in the other. There is the immediate threat of violence. This sense of approaching darkness and danger never really leaves the narrative.
There is an interview with Razak at telegraphindia.com in which she explains why she wrote this book and how she came to the book’s title:
It was a need to write about something political, intimate and about women that led Razak to the trauma of Indian Partition in 1947. Listening to the radio one night in her cafe, she heard a show called Partition Voices –– interviews of elderly survivors and their experiences of living through the Partition of India. She was moved. “It wasn’t just about the political and geographical rupture in India. It was ruptures between families, between friends, between people because there was so much love there. And that was kind of ripped apart,” she said.
And:
The name Moth came from a very unprecedented event in Razak’s life. There had been a moth infestation in her flat on her beloved pashmina scarves collected from India over the years of travel. “I picked one up and it just crumpled into dust in front of me. And it was really that feeling of it falling apart that made me think of the situation and Partition,” she said. She also remembers Jinnah’s words where he compared Pakistan to a moth-eaten country with separate parts in separate places. This was an image Razak couldn’t get out of her mind.
And this feeling of things falling apart is very dominant in the book. Our focus is a Brahmin family, mother and father both lecturers at the local university. This immediately tells you something about the family at that time, and the mother experiences plenty of discrimination because she is not a man. The family is preparing for the wedding of their young daughter, Alma, a wedding they are not sure is a good idea but which they feel they need to proceed with to protect her. Because all around them, the threat of violence is continually growing as Partition approaches.
The book is full of memorable characters. Alma’s sister, Roop, is memorable for perhaps the wrong reasons: a very young girl who shows all the signs of being some kind of psychopath! But the rest of the family, including servants, is brought to life very vividly as are the events of Partition.
Whilst it is Partition that drives the book forward, the focus is predominantly on the women. The Guardian review finishes by saying: With its unflinching focus on violence against women, her strong, captivating debut tells a story that is at once firmly rooted in a time and place and yet pressingly relevant to the here and now.
This is not a cheerful book to read. In fact, it is exactly the opposite. But it shines a light into an area I confess to knowing little about, which is always a good thing.
November 7, 2022
Full RTC. This was a devastating read.
Tw: rape, sexual assault, violence, murder, discrimination, islamophobia, racism, graphic violence, misogynistic, child marriage
Red apple hair clip. Sweet milk pudding. A fair haired boy at the shore. The sacrifice? The moth. Ninety three women dead in the well.
Death is a whimsical thing
A tumultous history of the partition of British India in 1947 into 2 independent dominions, the East Muslim majority Pakistan and the West Hindu majority India, we followed a family who went through this harrowing event as they are torn apart from each other. With multiple narrative, we start with the arranged marriage of a precocious Alma who are set to get married to a boy during the political unrest brewing in the community and the increasing violent confrontations between Hindu and Muslim. Though reluctant for the marriage, Bappu and Ma (Alma's parents) decided it was the safest choice for Alma as many women and children are violated cruelly during this time. But when the engagement breaks due to Alma's rigged initiative to change Alma's horoscope, the family was forced apart and ensue a tragic separation and tragey befalls Alma.
Devastating, heartbreaking and a hard read this was. The violence between humans, especially towards the weaks, the appaling misogynistic views on women with their housewives duties, the disgusting act of child marriages that was so prominent, the unfairness of caste system, there are so many themes that were so hard to discussed yet this book brought all of this to the light. All i can say this was such a difficult to read for how graphic some of the scenes are, for how it gets me to actually look at this and see how horrible they are.
Alma was still very much a young girl who dont understand things, she is stubborn, naive, love to spin eery wild tales of djinns and monsters, her passionate love for her family, also very immature in many things. Yet, as she was forced apart, she learned that she need to care for herself independently, she need to do anything to survive. The family, Bappu a estimated professor and the head of the family was a good man who cared so much about his family and Ma, the mother who fought against any traditional beliefs that women could not be other than housewife. She was a learned woman, become a professor and had forward thinking that gets her scrutinized for. Roop, the youngest at 6 had the characteristic of psychopath in making for her obsession with death, torturing animals, they are very hard to read through for me, it felt quite absurd and uncomfortable.
For how heavy this book is, beware if you want to read it. Its a tough book because of the graphic details but at the same time, its good to learn the history behind it because this happened and its a history that should not be forgotten.
Tw: rape, sexual assault, violence, murder, discrimination, islamophobia, racism, graphic violence, misogynistic, child marriage
Red apple hair clip. Sweet milk pudding. A fair haired boy at the shore. The sacrifice? The moth. Ninety three women dead in the well.
Death is a whimsical thing
A tumultous history of the partition of British India in 1947 into 2 independent dominions, the East Muslim majority Pakistan and the West Hindu majority India, we followed a family who went through this harrowing event as they are torn apart from each other. With multiple narrative, we start with the arranged marriage of a precocious Alma who are set to get married to a boy during the political unrest brewing in the community and the increasing violent confrontations between Hindu and Muslim. Though reluctant for the marriage, Bappu and Ma (Alma's parents) decided it was the safest choice for Alma as many women and children are violated cruelly during this time. But when the engagement breaks due to Alma's rigged initiative to change Alma's horoscope, the family was forced apart and ensue a tragic separation and tragey befalls Alma.
Devastating, heartbreaking and a hard read this was. The violence between humans, especially towards the weaks, the appaling misogynistic views on women with their housewives duties, the disgusting act of child marriages that was so prominent, the unfairness of caste system, there are so many themes that were so hard to discussed yet this book brought all of this to the light. All i can say this was such a difficult to read for how graphic some of the scenes are, for how it gets me to actually look at this and see how horrible they are.
Alma was still very much a young girl who dont understand things, she is stubborn, naive, love to spin eery wild tales of djinns and monsters, her passionate love for her family, also very immature in many things. Yet, as she was forced apart, she learned that she need to care for herself independently, she need to do anything to survive. The family, Bappu a estimated professor and the head of the family was a good man who cared so much about his family and Ma, the mother who fought against any traditional beliefs that women could not be other than housewife. She was a learned woman, become a professor and had forward thinking that gets her scrutinized for. Roop, the youngest at 6 had the characteristic of psychopath in making for her obsession with death, torturing animals, they are very hard to read through for me, it felt quite absurd and uncomfortable.
For how heavy this book is, beware if you want to read it. Its a tough book because of the graphic details but at the same time, its good to learn the history behind it because this happened and its a history that should not be forgotten.
September 9, 2021
A trillion words, a million perspectives, over thousands of books, yet, nothing.... nothing braces you as the horrors washes anew with every account told, with every memory rehearsed from the partition era.
1946 Delhi, tension impregnates the air. Fear and anger are palpable as the calendar counts down to the much-awaited independence. We are whisked away quickly behind the doors of Pushp Vihar, the abode of a Brahmin family whose quiet life is in a lurch like the millions of others at the impending partition. This family is not your usual kind. They are open-minded, tolerant, and have a modern approach. I think it was a fresh breath of air given the proclivity to portray India as impoverished and backward.
While friends turned on friends, neighbors vilifying each other, MOTH by Melody Razak is not the big picture of what was happening everywhere but a deeper insight into one family particularly which impressed in forging a personal connection with the characters and becoming one with the family.
Inside the walls of Pushp Vihar was like a cocoon – the minute you crossed the threshold, the omnipresent fear has dulled to background noise but not quite gone. Like every parent out there wanting to protect their children, Ma and Bappu tried hard to keep the muck outside till it tore the doors down and wreaked havoc in the little oasis of normality they have tried to maintain.
This is the first partition book I have read from a non-Indian author and all I can say is Melody Razak has done a commendable job. The research is impeccable and the atmosphere she creates with her sense of time and the place will drag you right in and make you a part of the story; living and breathing with the characters.
I won’t say this is by far the best partition literature that I have read, however I did enjoy this unique insight which encapsulated historical events and experiences flawlessly. There were a few instances where Hindi phrases were misprinted which I am willing to overlook as it was written by someone who is uninitiated to the language and they were far and few!
The book ends on high note of hope, made me wonder, What next?
Thank you @hachette for this review copy.
1946 Delhi, tension impregnates the air. Fear and anger are palpable as the calendar counts down to the much-awaited independence. We are whisked away quickly behind the doors of Pushp Vihar, the abode of a Brahmin family whose quiet life is in a lurch like the millions of others at the impending partition. This family is not your usual kind. They are open-minded, tolerant, and have a modern approach. I think it was a fresh breath of air given the proclivity to portray India as impoverished and backward.
While friends turned on friends, neighbors vilifying each other, MOTH by Melody Razak is not the big picture of what was happening everywhere but a deeper insight into one family particularly which impressed in forging a personal connection with the characters and becoming one with the family.
Inside the walls of Pushp Vihar was like a cocoon – the minute you crossed the threshold, the omnipresent fear has dulled to background noise but not quite gone. Like every parent out there wanting to protect their children, Ma and Bappu tried hard to keep the muck outside till it tore the doors down and wreaked havoc in the little oasis of normality they have tried to maintain.
This is the first partition book I have read from a non-Indian author and all I can say is Melody Razak has done a commendable job. The research is impeccable and the atmosphere she creates with her sense of time and the place will drag you right in and make you a part of the story; living and breathing with the characters.
I won’t say this is by far the best partition literature that I have read, however I did enjoy this unique insight which encapsulated historical events and experiences flawlessly. There were a few instances where Hindi phrases were misprinted which I am willing to overlook as it was written by someone who is uninitiated to the language and they were far and few!
The book ends on high note of hope, made me wonder, What next?
Thank you @hachette for this review copy.
August 19, 2022
While on vacation, I will read my books but rarely write reviews. However, this deserves a huge shout out. The author is a British Iranian writer who has written an incredibly knowledgeable and accurate portrayal of the culture, customs,and caste system of India while imagining the effects of the 1947 partition of India and Pakistan. How this upper caste Brahim family crumbled during this period and what happened to the 14 year old was a punch to the gut. It also highlighted the strength of family, the role of being "separate but not equal". For those not familiar it may require a google search of Hindi terminology at times to comprehend certain words, but do not let this deter you. Push through this..You will be rewarded with an outstanding work. I LOVED it..
March 3, 2023
A stunning story about the lives topsy turvied around the Independence years in the Infian subcontinent. The huge mass migration which wasn't anticipated and the associated loot, rape and murders.
All this shown via the tribulations faced by an upper class brahmin family in Delhi and their close Muslim friends and associates..
A girl who gets separated and abducted ...
It was awesome, it was scary
I don't want a repeat of this Historical incident ever.
For the umpteenth time , I keep on wishing that India and Pakistan were amicable neighbors, and Hindus and Muslims forget radicalism and become more tolerant of each other.
All this shown via the tribulations faced by an upper class brahmin family in Delhi and their close Muslim friends and associates..
A girl who gets separated and abducted ...
It was awesome, it was scary
I don't want a repeat of this Historical incident ever.
For the umpteenth time , I keep on wishing that India and Pakistan were amicable neighbors, and Hindus and Muslims forget radicalism and become more tolerant of each other.
February 16, 2022
This is a beautifully written novel. My mum told me it wasn’t too sad but she lied
April 17, 2022
I received a free uncorrected proof copy of this book via the Goodreads Giveaways program and would like to thank anyone who was involved in making that happen!
What a fantastic debut novel! I was sucked in right from the beginning and while this was at times very difficult to read due to the sheer brutality of life in that time and place I found it riveting and so emotionally engaging. I really didn't know anything about India's Independence and then Partition in the 1940's before reading this book and now I have an understanding of just how horrific this time period was and how devastating the erupting conflict between Hindus and Muslims who had lived peacefully together before was. This book also explores the intolerable treatment of women and the severe cultural ideals surrounding women and honor and shows how these affect all the women portrayed in the story. I am so glad that I got the opportunity to read this!
What a fantastic debut novel! I was sucked in right from the beginning and while this was at times very difficult to read due to the sheer brutality of life in that time and place I found it riveting and so emotionally engaging. I really didn't know anything about India's Independence and then Partition in the 1940's before reading this book and now I have an understanding of just how horrific this time period was and how devastating the erupting conflict between Hindus and Muslims who had lived peacefully together before was. This book also explores the intolerable treatment of women and the severe cultural ideals surrounding women and honor and shows how these affect all the women portrayed in the story. I am so glad that I got the opportunity to read this!
July 10, 2022
I know little of this moment in history. However, Moth has inspired me to learn more. This book gives the reader emotion and despair from one family’s point of view in a very impactful way.
It is poetic more than literal. I was often in tears, but I enjoyed the read.
It is poetic more than literal. I was often in tears, but I enjoyed the read.
September 22, 2022
This was by no means an easy read. It's painful and harrowing and graphic in its horrifying truths but it's also beautifully written, illuminating, honest and the perfect read for anyone wanting to further understand the partition in all its stages.
TW: rape, sexual assault
TW: rape, sexual assault
January 23, 2023
I just loved the family, was horrified at the atrocities of partition. The writing was really good with some lovely words and phrases.
June 3, 2024
i'm not sure this is a bad book or anything like that but i just couldn't get into it. felt like i was forcing myself to read it by the end.
January 26, 2022
An amazing debut novel!
Totally recommend this one, and can't wait to see what the author does next.
Thanks to my sis for giving it to me as a birthday gift 🙂
Totally recommend this one, and can't wait to see what the author does next.
Thanks to my sis for giving it to me as a birthday gift 🙂
December 18, 2022
Trigger warnings for this book:
Sexual assault, rape, violence, sexism, xenophobia, racism, gore, animal violence, incest, explicit sexual scenes.
*Contains spoilers*
Moth by Melody Razak was a provoking book and had many memorable scenes, as well as beautifully written sentences and paragraphs, yet the book did not follow through well as a novel. While her writing offers many poignant and insightful moments, the longevity of her writing is quite drawn out and slow for a novel. For instance, there would be a scene that would change the trajectory of the plot, or add more insight into the historical context, but then the author would continue to stress that point with other depictions that felt very contrived and wanting more for shock value than added relevance to the novel.
That being said, I appreciated Razak’s commentary on religion, nationalism, colonialism, fascism, feminism, classism, etc. As I now understand, this period, the Partition Era, and India's Independence were wrought with political and social upheaval. To Razak’s credit, I felt that with her debut novel she attempted to speak on the multiplicity of issues that were occurring during this period, through the experience of this fictional family. I believe this story was meant to elicit relatability and emotionality to the circumstances via a domestic setting.
For the first 60% of this novel, I was very invested in what would happen to this family. But, towards the end, I found myself losing interest because the plot wasn't really going anywhere, instead, the duration of the book was meant to emphasize the suffering that the family felt, which I felt empathy for but also felt could have been concluded within a hundred pages less than the book had. Unfortunately, I felt that the characters in her book were more plot devices than characters. There were also several scenes that I did not understand the relevance of. For example, the recalling of the past and the allusions to incestuous feelings that happened--what was the point of that? Other than to emphasize the darkness that encapsulated these people.
I felt that the last part of this novel was more of a "misery, begets misery, begets misery, begets misery, etc." We know. She did not understand that her setting and time period spoke to that implicitly without having to overexplain or emphasize.
Finally, I do not understand the inclusion of the first scene of the book juxtaposed with the last scene of the book. The scenes seem unrelated, yet they are placed in a strategic and poignant way but do not offer any strategic or poignant meanings. The narrative is disorganized and while I enjoy Razak’s writing style I was very frustrated at the end scene. I felt that I already knew what happened to Alma and I could have known what happened earlier and gained nothing from reading the last 40% of the book.
Also, the end is meant to be inspirational despite the previous gratuitous and horrifying scene but I struggled to see the point of inspiration or the point of that last scene. Was it really her India? No. Her body wasn't even her body. She was abducted. You can't take your audience through that entire novel in which you emphasize that women are not equal humans in this scenario and don't have the same agency as men in any capacity and then try to convince us in the last scene that it is somehow "her India", it felt patronizing. Why end on a high note when the entire point of your novel was meant to emphasize suffering and horror, and the crimes of humanity against one another? It's like putting a bow on a pile of shit, what's the point?
She is a talented writer but this book is not for me, though I know I will think about this novel quite often. I think having read it and understood the gravity of the events that took place during this period, I can't help but be grateful to Razak for illuminating and explicitly showing the horrors that the people in this part of the world, specifically the women, had to endure. I can appreciate and validate that I know that this author has done extensive research into this topic, which from what I can tell would not be easy, but has many stories still to tell.
I rented this book from the library and I will not be purchasing it at a future time. I will not be reading this book. I do not necessarily recommend this book either.
Sexual assault, rape, violence, sexism, xenophobia, racism, gore, animal violence, incest, explicit sexual scenes.
*Contains spoilers*
Moth by Melody Razak was a provoking book and had many memorable scenes, as well as beautifully written sentences and paragraphs, yet the book did not follow through well as a novel. While her writing offers many poignant and insightful moments, the longevity of her writing is quite drawn out and slow for a novel. For instance, there would be a scene that would change the trajectory of the plot, or add more insight into the historical context, but then the author would continue to stress that point with other depictions that felt very contrived and wanting more for shock value than added relevance to the novel.
That being said, I appreciated Razak’s commentary on religion, nationalism, colonialism, fascism, feminism, classism, etc. As I now understand, this period, the Partition Era, and India's Independence were wrought with political and social upheaval. To Razak’s credit, I felt that with her debut novel she attempted to speak on the multiplicity of issues that were occurring during this period, through the experience of this fictional family. I believe this story was meant to elicit relatability and emotionality to the circumstances via a domestic setting.
For the first 60% of this novel, I was very invested in what would happen to this family. But, towards the end, I found myself losing interest because the plot wasn't really going anywhere, instead, the duration of the book was meant to emphasize the suffering that the family felt, which I felt empathy for but also felt could have been concluded within a hundred pages less than the book had. Unfortunately, I felt that the characters in her book were more plot devices than characters. There were also several scenes that I did not understand the relevance of. For example, the recalling of the past and the allusions to incestuous feelings that happened--what was the point of that? Other than to emphasize the darkness that encapsulated these people.
I felt that the last part of this novel was more of a "misery, begets misery, begets misery, begets misery, etc." We know. She did not understand that her setting and time period spoke to that implicitly without having to overexplain or emphasize.
Finally, I do not understand the inclusion of the first scene of the book juxtaposed with the last scene of the book. The scenes seem unrelated, yet they are placed in a strategic and poignant way but do not offer any strategic or poignant meanings. The narrative is disorganized and while I enjoy Razak’s writing style I was very frustrated at the end scene. I felt that I already knew what happened to Alma and I could have known what happened earlier and gained nothing from reading the last 40% of the book.
Also, the end is meant to be inspirational despite the previous gratuitous and horrifying scene but I struggled to see the point of inspiration or the point of that last scene. Was it really her India? No. Her body wasn't even her body. She was abducted. You can't take your audience through that entire novel in which you emphasize that women are not equal humans in this scenario and don't have the same agency as men in any capacity and then try to convince us in the last scene that it is somehow "her India", it felt patronizing. Why end on a high note when the entire point of your novel was meant to emphasize suffering and horror, and the crimes of humanity against one another? It's like putting a bow on a pile of shit, what's the point?
She is a talented writer but this book is not for me, though I know I will think about this novel quite often. I think having read it and understood the gravity of the events that took place during this period, I can't help but be grateful to Razak for illuminating and explicitly showing the horrors that the people in this part of the world, specifically the women, had to endure. I can appreciate and validate that I know that this author has done extensive research into this topic, which from what I can tell would not be easy, but has many stories still to tell.
I rented this book from the library and I will not be purchasing it at a future time. I will not be reading this book. I do not necessarily recommend this book either.
March 27, 2024
A story about a family as Partition happens around them. Amazingly told, really haunting. I'm left wondering how Partition wasn't mentioned once in school history lessons
December 31, 2021
WOOOW.
First and foremost i'm absolutely not equipped to write a review like this for a book like this, i will do my best though. For a debut novel, i find this to be incredible, the book just wouldn't leave my mind. I was initially drawn to the book as i've never read anything on the partition (obviously we covered it in classes but i'd never read a Book on it, so) and i figured it would be good to cover more bases (also isn't this cover beautiful?! So grateful this was a book featured on a list of beautiful new books back when it got published so i could immediately snatch a copy) but it took me a good deal longer to have the courage to pick it up, probably because i knew it'd be a lot. With that said, i'm so grateful that an author like this is writing a story like this as you can just tell the amount of care they have for writing a story that is faithful and respectful to all the women like those in Razak's story. I'm really glad this could be my start.
With all that said, i was also really impressed with the character writing and general story arc, i was genuinely so engaged throughout the book and as much as that's due to writing, it's also due to how genuinely interesting these characters are, even the very side characters i was totally on board with. Like i said, although the arc of the story (0bviously) gets difficult to read at times, i thought it was excellently done and i was always interested in how we were going to progress.
Basically, an awesome end to 2021 reads and i hope anyone who thinks they could pick with up, will.
First and foremost i'm absolutely not equipped to write a review like this for a book like this, i will do my best though. For a debut novel, i find this to be incredible, the book just wouldn't leave my mind. I was initially drawn to the book as i've never read anything on the partition (obviously we covered it in classes but i'd never read a Book on it, so) and i figured it would be good to cover more bases (also isn't this cover beautiful?! So grateful this was a book featured on a list of beautiful new books back when it got published so i could immediately snatch a copy) but it took me a good deal longer to have the courage to pick it up, probably because i knew it'd be a lot. With that said, i'm so grateful that an author like this is writing a story like this as you can just tell the amount of care they have for writing a story that is faithful and respectful to all the women like those in Razak's story. I'm really glad this could be my start.
With all that said, i was also really impressed with the character writing and general story arc, i was genuinely so engaged throughout the book and as much as that's due to writing, it's also due to how genuinely interesting these characters are, even the very side characters i was totally on board with. Like i said, although the arc of the story (0bviously) gets difficult to read at times, i thought it was excellently done and i was always interested in how we were going to progress.
Basically, an awesome end to 2021 reads and i hope anyone who thinks they could pick with up, will.
October 12, 2022
I am way behind on my reviews, having finished this one over a month ago. I read it for a discussion in the 21st Century Literarure group, which I was leading.
It was longlisted for the Desmond Elliott Prize for debut novels, and is quite an impressive debut, mostly set in Delhi at the time of the partition that created independent India and Pakistan.
There are also rites of passage and social history elements to the story, which is at heart a family story. The main protagonists are a prosperous Brahmin family in which the main protagonist Alma and her tomboyish younger sister Roop grow up. Other characters exist mainly to demonstrate the religious and cultural diversity of Delhi.
It was longlisted for the Desmond Elliott Prize for debut novels, and is quite an impressive debut, mostly set in Delhi at the time of the partition that created independent India and Pakistan.
There are also rites of passage and social history elements to the story, which is at heart a family story. The main protagonists are a prosperous Brahmin family in which the main protagonist Alma and her tomboyish younger sister Roop grow up. Other characters exist mainly to demonstrate the religious and cultural diversity of Delhi.
August 20, 2023
A gripping rendition of an Indian’s family’s experiences during Partition, depicting the conflict between religion and caste in 1947. Razan experiments with narrative and perspective to give us a comprehensive understanding of Alma’s family and their servants. Easy to read (I was on holiday - only reason why it took me this long to finish it) and highly researched (it is clear the author took time to study Indian mythology and contemporary articles), this is an impressive debut.
May 28, 2023
Almost 4 stars -difficult to read but touching story of the Partition
Moth paints a beautiful and heartbreaking picture of India right before and during the Partition. I learned a lot. And I. Also thankful that I didn't have to live through that time.
Moth paints a beautiful and heartbreaking picture of India right before and during the Partition. I learned a lot. And I. Also thankful that I didn't have to live through that time.
April 24, 2024
I now understand that I knew nothing of what happened during the Partition of India in 1947. Moth is beautifully written and important. Would have given it 5 stars except the beginning was slow for me.
August 25, 2022
Wow. My goodness what a book. Haunting, powerful and tragic. I think this is one that I will remember for a long time.
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