Hunger’s Daughters (Om Books International, 2018)
She lives in a forest hamlet in Orissa. With a father presumed dead and a mother gone missing, Susanthi Bodra is compelled to become a breadwinner at the age of twelve.
Eight-year-old Nelli runs away from her mistress’s home, but is kidnapped and sold into a brothel in Nagpur. Two decades have passed, and she is yet to return to her hamlet Kithapur. Gowravva, her mother, is on the hunt to find her precious daughter.
From the home of the Lesser Known Goddess to the chilli fields of a mother who has long lost her daughter; from the plush residence of a powerful minister to a vedic ashram, Nainika Chandra, a journalist and the narrator in Hunger’s Daughters, brings together the stories of young breadwinners from the forest hamlets of Jharkhand, Orissa and Karnataka. The book binds the unexplored shades of poverty and power, with an underlying story of love.
In Praise of Hunger’s Daughters
Nirmala Govindarajan writes with a fluid pen about the real India in a lyrical, poetic voice that resonates with emotion at many levels. Her writing is about the unseen, unfelt, unthought-of people in India. Now, finally, the unheard will be ‘heard’ for posterity.
Padma Shri awardee Wendell Rodricks. Renowned Fashion Designer, Author, Activist.
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Nirmala Govindarajan’s terrific new novel is a tour de force. The book’s powerful prose brings alive a mother’s anguished quest for love, identity and meaning in life. Yet, her novel is also a vivid portrait of life in a rural Indian community dealing with its own hidden secrets. By melding the two narratives, the author achieves stylistic brilliance while offering a stirring social commentary on modern India. With each sentence, the reader eagerly wants to read more.
Sudarsan Raghavan, Bureau Chief, The Washington Post, Cairo. Winner of several international accolades for journalism including George Polk, Livingston and Osborn Elliott awards.
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In recent times, when the Indian novel in English is packed with urban themes, this book comes as a welcome departure, as it speaks about the lives of the marginalised among the rural and tribal women. The book’s raw, journal-like narrative takes us through the stories of disadvantaged women, often in a direct, forceful way.
Jayanth Kodkani, Writer and Senior Editor, Times of India
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The magic is so real that the grit feels like fairy dust…
Mini Anthikad Chhibber, Deputy Editor, The Hindu
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An intricate and important work of governmental failures, social ineptitude and injustices, this novel is worthy…a good read.
Darius Taraporvala (Tuffy), NDTV South Head, Theatre Artist.
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News on Hunger’s Daughters
Bangalore Literature Festival, 2018
YouTube video of the book launch at BLF 2018 – Nirmala Govindarajan in conversation with Ashish Chandra Sen