The Girl Who Sang With Cuckoos: A Novel of Family, Survival, and Coming of Age in Bangalore, India - Paperback

by Shoba Hari (Author)

All Ahria wanted was a holiday. At twenty-two, she has already lost more than most. A fractured childhood marked by love, violence, and silence. A home that was never safe. A past she has spent years trying to outrun. Instead, she gets the tsunami of 2004.

Off the coast of Thailand, a wall of water drags her and her beloved brother into the churning sea. As she fights to keep them both alive, her life flashes before her. Every memory, every wound, every moment she survived by holding on just a little longer. Can she save him, or will she die just as she is on the cusp of a new life?

Set against the vivid, noisy, fragrant backdrop of late twentieth century Bangalore, amongst opulent villas and trash-filled slums, the honks of a thousand autorickshaws and the birdsong that takes over in the quiet hours, The Girl Who Sang With Cuckoos is a haunting literary novel about family, control, sexuality and the quiet rebellions that shape a life in India.

The story unfolds through Ahria's eyes as a young girl navigating an unpredictable father, a mother whose choices would define them all, and a world that expects her to endure without complaint. A tradition that puts the picture perfect appearance of a wealthy Indian family above the wellbeing of its children, and would rather beat its women into submission than provide a safe nest. Alongside the violence and survival, Ahria quietly grapples with her own identity, torn between the feelings she has for women and the life she is expected to live, in a society where there is no language for what she feels.

A story of survival, resilience, intrigue and the saving grace of loyal friends. A girl who fought to break free from the life of a traditional Indian woman, and to save her brother and sister from the abuse she received.

This is an India that still throbs away just below the surface, even in the wealthiest of homes. Its call as insistent as the cuckoos that sang in the trees outside Ahria's bedroom window each night.

This is not a gentle story. It is one that lingers.

For readers of Arundhati Roy, Preeti Shenoy, and Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni.