"[Merchant] has a writer's eye for colour and action, a writer's ear for language and music, and a writer's obsessive interest in the patterns of human behaviour." -- Quill & Quire

"This is a gem of a novel, filled with brilliant imagery and an elegant style of writing. Readers will be filled with a sense of music playing, just a little out of hearing range. It's both a classical Indian raga and Bollywood soundtrack." -- Toronto Star

In the literary tradition of Rohinton Mistry and Arundhati Roy, this ambitious debut novel is a moving tale of family, tradition, loss and reconciliation.

Meet Janaki and Mallika, two sisters from a middle-class Brahmin family in Madras, India. Janaki is a musical prodigy, sublimely gifted on the veena, but will soon be eighteen and dreads her aunt's schemes for an arranged marriage. Eschewing tradition, she runs off with a Muslim Bollywood star. Years later, Mallika receives a letter from Janaki, who is returning to Madras.

In confident prose that resembles the rhythms and progression of an Indian raga, Ameen Merchant captures in rich detail the world of these Brahmin women, a world restricted by caste and cultural rules but also teeming with colour, music and food. It is a story about the traditions that bind us and the sacrifices we must make along the road to our own individual destinies.