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First Published:
Aug 2022, 368 pages
Paperback:
Aug 15, 2023, 352 pages
Book Reviewed by:
Kim Kovacs
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Melody Razak makes her literary debut with this internationally-acclaimed saga of one Indian family's trials through the tumultuous partition - the 1947 split of Pakistan from India - exploring its impact on women, what it means to be "othered" in one's own society, and the redemptive power of family.
Delhi, 1946. Fourteen-year-old Alma is soon to be married despite her parents' fear that she is far too young. But times are perilous in India, where the country's long-awaited independence from the British empire heralds a new era of hope—and danger. In its wake, political unrest ripples across the subcontinent, marked by violent confrontations between Hindus and Muslims. The conflict threatens to unravel the rich tapestry of Delhi—a city where different cultures, religions, and traditions have co-existed for centuries. The solution is partition, which will create a new, wholly Muslim, sovereign nation—Pakistan—carved from India's northwestern shoulder. Given the uncertain times, Alma's parents, intellectuals who teach at the local university, pray that marriage will provide Alma with stability and safety.
Alma is precocious and headstrong, and her excitement over the wedding rivals only her joy in spinning wild stories about evil spirits for her younger sister Roop. But when Alma's grandmother—a woman determined to protect the family's honor no matter the cost—interferes with the engagement, her meddling sets off a chain of events that will wrench the family apart, forcing its members to find new and increasingly desperate ways to survive in the wake of partition.
Set during the most tumultuous years in modern Indian history, Melody Razak recreates the painful turmoil of a rupturing nation and its reverberations across the fates of a single family. Powerfully evocative and atmospheric, Moth is a testament to survival and a celebration of the beauty and resilience of the human spirit.
Prologue
Lahore, Pakistan, May 1948
In a makeshift sling across her chest, she holds a sleeping baby. A swaddled baby who drinks in her mother's scent, the promise of milk, and moves her mouth in quiet sucks like tight petals blooming.
In the dark corridor, she slips a hand into the sling, grips through the cotton the steel of a paring knife. Next to the knife is a vial of rosewater, next to the vial, a newspaper twist of turmeric.
She wishes she hadn't promised. Only, the birth had been so hard, with the old stitches unravelling, and the girl had thought she would surely die. She had not known that the child pressed to her chest could be so warm.
She clutches the baby now and walks outside, stands on the garden path. It is raining.
I was not expecting you, says the girl to the rain.
I'm here for you, says the rain. I'm not supposed to be here at all. This will confuse everyone.
Thank you for coming.
The rain is as good as her word. Hot rainwater falls so fast and thick, she ...
As partition approaches and the drama ramps up, the narrative transforms from character-driven to action-driven. It's these chapters that make Moth a standout; Razak's prose elicits a visceral reaction in her audience as each character is consumed by events they can't control, and the overall atmosphere of tension is palpable. It's one of the most unforgettable novels on the subject that I've encountered, and I found reading it an intense experience...continued
Full Review
(636 words).
(Reviewed by Kim Kovacs).
Anna Hope, author of Expectation
I was utterly transported by Moth. In exquisite prose, Melody Razak takes us right to the heart and the heat of Partition-era Delhi - a fracturing city, a fracturing nation and a family attempting to hold themselves together when everything threatens to tear them apart. Moth is a rare, winged delight—able to stare unflinchingly into the darkness, while always illuminated by a fierce love for life. A stunning, powerful work by a brave new voice in British fiction. Thrity Umrigar, bestselling author of Honor and The Space Between Us
A heartbreaking and heartwarming novel that exposes the ugliness of religious enmities and affirms the redemptive beauty of love and homecoming. Razak unflinchingly recreates the horror of Partition and its devastating effect on one family. The result is a novel that feels surprisingly timely and relevant.
In Melody Razak's novel Moth, one of the characters is fascinated by the legend of the churel, and the mythological being is mentioned several times throughout the plot.
A churel (also spelled "chudail," "churail" and as other variations) is a staple of South Asian folklore, encountered most frequently in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. The being is created when a woman dies after being wronged or mistreated by her family and/or dies during pregnancy, childbirth or while menstruating. She's often described as hideously ugly, with wild hair, a pot belly, sagging breasts, boar-like fangs and a long, black tongue. She is also, however, a shape-shifter who can appear to her victims as a beautiful woman. The only constant is her feet, ...
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