‘Consummate, confident and original’–Kavery Nambisan
‘A heartbreaking read.’–Hansda Sowvendra Shekhar
‘A narrative universe of shocking beauty.’–Saikat Majumdar
Ten-year-old Narois wakes up to find that her mother is preparing to go to a mysterious place—a place neither too far nor too close. It is a motherless Monday. The first of many.
As Narois’s father struggles to adapt; as her parents’ marriage comes apart; as Narois herself tries to make sense of the goings-on—is her mother having an affair; is she planning to abandon the family forever?—she creeps away into the dark, magical-real Jahanpanah forest to escape. Here, she encounters the Jugnus—legendary healers and weather-workers. Silver Samir, their handsome leader, Mian Pagla who followed the river, Kochi who is bendy when sad, and Velu the gentle murderer mesmerize Narois with their tales; she will do what she can to belong to them.
It is a world on the brink, where the mother Narois leans on may be unable to protect her and where betrayal can be love in disguise. Lyrical, precocious and devastatingly tender, Age of Mondays is a story of star-crossed friendships and childhood in a trembling, terrifying era.
