Deepavali has never been the same since the terrible mistake Shreya made three years ago. She now dreads the annual celebration, choosing instead to be as uninvolved as possible, until she is visited by three celestial beings who decide to help her right the wrongs.
In Singapore’s answer to A Christmas Carol, Shreya revisits key events in her family’s history and catches a glimpse of their future as well. Seeing things in a new light, she comes to terms with her emotional wounds and learns the importance of keeping herself and her family whole.
"This YA novel is an incredibly necessary addition to the landscape of Singaporean literature. It is beautifully written and has such a message of hope, acceptance, and homecoming. I can only imagine the number of young people whose lives are going to be saved and changed by this book." — Pooja Nansi, poet and director of the Singapore Writers Festival, in "My Book of the Year 2019", Singapore Unbound
"Where it shines is in its loving portrait of the festival of lights, from the mouth-watering descriptions of butter thosais, masala chai and murukku to the chaos of interrogations from nosy relatives and children setting things on fire ... it earnestly stresses that a festival is nothing without family." — The Straits Times
Anittha Thanabalan is the author of the 2018 Epigram Books Fiction Prize-shortlisted novel, The Lights That Find Us. This debut launched her writing career, which now includes the start of a popular Young Adult trilogy, It Had to Be Her and It Had to Be Him. Her short stories have appeared in Mahogany Journal, Best New Singaporean Short Stories: Volume Five and How We Live Now. When she isn’t working or writing, Anittha can be found walking her poodle, Dino, or taking on challenging jigsaw puzzles.
ISBN:
9789814845182
Cover Type: Paperback Page Count: 200 Year Published: 2019 Size: 129mm x 198mm Language: English
