SynopsisWhat makes a dutiful daughter, wife, and mother? What makes a good
Indian woman?
Devi returns to Madras with an American degree, only to be sucked in by the old
order of things-a demanding mother's love, a suitable but hollow marriage, an
unsuitable lover who offers a brief escape. But the women of the hoary past
come back to claim Devi through myth and story, music and memory. They
show her what it is to stay and endure what it is to break free and move on. Sita
has been the ideal daughter-in-law, wife and mother. But now that she has
arranged a marriage for her daughter she has to come to terms with an old
dream of her own. Mayamma knows how to survive as the old family retainer,
bending the way the wind blows. But, through Devi, she too can see a different
life.
A subtle and tender tale of women's lives in India, this award-winning novel is
structured with the delicacy and precision of a piece of music. Fusing myth, tale
and the real voices of different women, The Thousand Faces of Night brings
alive the underworld of Indian women's lives.
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Binding: PaperBack
About the author
Githa Hariharan was born in Coimbatore and grew up in Bombay and Manila. She now lives in New Delhi. Hariharan's first novel, The Thousand Faces of Night, won the Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Best First Book. Her work since then includes the short story collection The Art of Dying, and the novels The Ghosts of Vasu Master, When Dreams Travel and In Times of Siege.
