Aazadi

In August 1946, the Ganguly sisters are living quietly in Ranipur, a Bengal village with a river running past it and a grand old mansion at its edge. Their father, Dr Nabakumar Ganguly, is a respected man, and the family feels sheltered from the unrest spreading across India. That sense of safety ends when he is killed on Direct Action Day, and the three young women are left to work out how to live in a country coming apart around them.

Each sister responds in her own way. Priya, the youngest, is clever and idealistic, and she is determined to become a doctor like her father, whatever it takes. Her father's closest friend, the zamindar Somnath Chowdhury, stands behind her. Jamini is devout, dutiful and gifted, and she stitches kanthas with their mother to keep the household going. She longs for affection, resents her sisters, and keeps a secret wish to herself. Deepa, the eldest and the beauty of the family, is expected to make a good marriage. Instead she falls in love with Raza, a Youth Leader in the Muslim League, and has to face what that choice costs her.

Then the country is partitioned, and the sisters are pulled apart, each frightened for herself and for the others. Only through that separation do they learn what independence really means and how much must be given up to get it. Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni sets this story of family loyalty, love and divided loyalties against the last years of the freedom struggle, a time that was both thrilling and devastating.