Spanning more than half a century and cities from New Delhi to
Atlanta, Anjali Enjeti's debut is a heartfelt and human portrait of the
long shadow of the Partition of India on the lives of three generations
of women.
The story begins in August 1947. Unrest plagues the streets of New Delhi
leading up to the birth of the Muslim majority nation of Pakistan, and
the Hindu majority nation of India. Sixteen-year-old Deepa navigates the
changing politics of her home, finding solace in messages of intricate
origami from her secret boyfriend Amir. Soon Amir flees with his family
to Pakistan and a tragedy forces Deepa to leave the subcontinent
forever.
The story also begins sixty years later and half a world away, in
Atlanta. While grieving both a pregnancy loss and the implosion of her
marriage, Deepa's granddaughter Shan begins the search for her estranged
grandmother, a prickly woman who had little interest in knowing her. As
she pieces together her family history shattered by the Partition, Shan
discovers how little she actually knows about the women in her family
and what they endured.
For readers of Jess Walter's Beautiful Ruins, The Parted Earth
follows Shan on her search for identity after loss uproots her life.
Above all, it is a novel about families weathering the lasting violence
of separation, and how it can often takes a lifetime to find unity and
peace.
