Amu: A Novel

Kajori (Kaju) Roy, a vivacious young Indian-American, returns to the land of her birth to discover her roots. Adopted as an orphaned three-year-old, her attempts to delve into her forgotten childhood throw up a number of intriguing questions: who were her birth parents? How did they die? How did her adoptive mother find her, and why did they then emigrate to America? Woven around this compelling central narrative are a number of other stories that unfold the complexities of family relationships, explore the dilemmas of diasporic Indian identity, and portray the rich mosaic of life in contemporary urban India. As Kaju’s voyage of self-discovery takes her from the mustard fields of rural India to the killing fields of Delhi during the 1984 riots, the mystery of her past is unravelled in a searing climax.