Avni Doshi Burnt Sugar 2021 Penguin Books, Limited 2021

Synopsis

<b>Shortlisted for the 2020 Booker Prize, a searing literary debut novel set in India about mothers and daughters, obsession and betrayal</b><p>"I would be lying if I say my mother's misery has never given me pleasure," says Antara, Tara's now-adult daughter. <p> This is a love story and a story about betrayal--not between lovers but between a mother and a daughter. . . . In her youth, Tara was wild. She abandoned her arranged marriage to join an ashram, embarked on a stint as a beggar (mostly to spite her affluent parents), and spent years chasing a disheveled, homeless "artist," all with little Antara in tow. <p> But now Tara is forgetting things, and Antara is an adult--an artist and married--and must search for a way to make peace with a past that haunts her as she confronts the task of caring for a woman who never cared for her. <p> Sharp as a blade and laced with caustic wit, <i>Burnt Sugar </i>unpicks the slippery, choking cord of memory and myth that binds mother and daughter: Is Tara's memory loss real? Are Antara's memories fair? In vivid and visceral prose, Avni Doshi tells a story at once shocking and empathetic of a mother-daughter relationship and a daughter's search for self. A journey into shifting memories, altering identities, and the subjective nature of truth, <i>Burnt Sugar </i>is the stunning and unforgettable debut of a major new voice in contemporary fiction.</p>