Time is a Fire

On October 31, 1984, a sixteen-year-old Amrita Gill came home to find her parents murdered in the riots following Indira Gandhi’s assassination. Since then, she has lived in Seattle for thirteen years, wanting nothing to do with the life she left behind in India. Now, however, she finds the past pulling at her. First, she receives a letter from an unknown man in Vancouver called Gurbachan Singh, who says he has something to tell her. Soon after that, she learns that Gurbachan Singh is dead, possibly murdered. Then, the next day, a man follows her and draws a knife, forcing her to flee. As a bemused Amrita looks for answers, she finds the past start to unravel in ways she could never have imagined. Gurbachan Singh turns out to have been a close confidante of Beant Singh and Kehar Singh, two men involved in Mrs. Gandhi’s assassination. On the day before the assassination, he had actually met and talked about the impending assassination attempt with none other than her own father. Then she learns that her father, whom she had always considered a police officer, had actually been with the intelligence. And that her parents were not really killed by rioters. It was only made to look that way. Set in Seattle, Vancouver and Delhi, Time is a Fire blends mystery, romance and political history to tell the story of lives turned upside down by Indira Gandhi’s assassination through a young woman’s bid to lay to rest the ghosts of her own tormented past.