Anandavalli Nair

Shards of Sunlight Anandavalli Nair

In the little town of Thalassery, Kerala, on the West Coast of India, Indu is blissfully unaware that her safe, predictable life is about to collapse around her. Only seven years old, Indus family is ripped apart when her lawyer father, Gopalan, is arrested for being a freedom fighter. Her only ally, her cousin, Mani, has also been left without parents because of the war in Malaya. Shards of Sunlight is a coming-of-age novel that follows Indus life as she negotiates the hard, traditional world of her extended family. Although Indus father is considered a local hero within her community, the harassment she faces from the police only makes her life harder. To make things worse, Indu and Mani soon find that they are vulnerable to predators from both within and without their family. When Indu is just seventeen, Gopalan tragically dies, leaving behind a rich legacy of knowledge and independent thought, which drives Indu to realise that obedience is not a virtue and girls should not be submissive. She escapes the threat of an arranged marriage and moves to Ceylon, where she meets Kantha, who she quickly falls in love with. But her disapproving uncle forbids the relationship. Will Indu continue to control her own life as her father would have wanted or will she allow circumstances to dictate who she is..?