Water Days

About the Book

THE DEATH OF A YOUNG WOMAN GALVANISES HER FAMILY AND NEIGHBOURHOOD INTO A FRENZY OF QUESTIONS AND UNLIKELY DISCOVERIES.

At the cusp of the millennium, in a fast-changing neighbourhood in Bangalore, Kannada, Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu and Hindi form a buzzing background of muted conversations as speculation mounts about what really happened that night when a girl barely out of her teens died. Raghavendra, erstwhile security guard dreaming of setting up his own grocery store, finds himself unexpectedly in the middle of it all, tasked with the responsibility of finding out the truth by his wife Poornima.

And every morning, for the thirteen days that it takes for the soul to find liberation and the story its resolution, the women gather at the water taps before sunrise, collecting water and stories ...

About the Author

Sundar Sarukkai's (www.sundarsarukkai.in) lifelong search for the hidden languages of nature, humans and societies has led to books, articles, plays and novels. His previous novel Following a Prayer was chosen by The Telegraph and Mint in their year-end list of 2023.