Gripping and powerful and heart touching. Couldn't put it down... The author has a real gift for storytelling! A must-read kind of book. Five stars!
– Amazon reader
Letters in the Sand
by Hema Macherla
£5.99 – £8.99
Paperback: 978-1-9196248-0-8
Digital: 978-1-9196248-1-5
If you enjoyed Breeze from the River Manjeera and Blue Eyes, you’ll love this new novel from best-selling author, Hema Macherla. Set in the 70s in a small village in India, Letters in the Sand is an engaging story of one girl’s quiet rebellion against her traditional, dysfunctional family and their non-negotiable plans to marry her at fifteen to any suitable boy.
In this layered narrative, the political and the personal are interwoven when Kiri’s beloved brother, Rajiv, runs away to join an extremist group fighting for fair pay and justice, and is caught up in the escalating violence. Against this volatile backdrop, Kiri yearns for an education as the only way to escape a life of subjugation defined by her gender. Can she find the courage to follow a lonely, challenging path to freedom?
‘I was no better than a cow, brushed and groomed, neck and ankles festooned with bells, flowers around its horns to be put on display for someone to choose.’
The author transports the reader back in time to a very different era in India. Beautifully written story. Definitely a must read.
– Maddie S
Letters in the Sand is a beautifully written story set in 1970 India…about a young girl Kiri who is determined to fight for her rights as a woman in a society dominated by men. Her trials and tribulations…are vividly written. The author’s descriptive style of writing had me transported back to 1970 India. Compelling to read, it is a page turner. I am waiting for the author’s next book. Best wishes to the author.
– Devi G
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About Hema Macherla
Hema Macherla was born in India and now lives in London. She has published twenty-five short stories and many articles in Indian magazines. Her debut novel, Breeze from the River Manjeera, was published to wide acclaim. It was short-listed for Richard & Judy, won the Big Red Read, 2009, and was translated into French in 2012. Hema received a National Reading Hero award in 2008. Her second novel, Blue Eyes, set in India in the 1920s is both epic and intimate as child-bride Anjali escapes the funeral pyre and makes a bid for freedom with the support of her childhood friend, Saleem.