Girls Burn Brighter

October 1, 2017

Winner of the 2014 Katherine Anne Porter Prize in Fiction, Rao is author of the short story collection An Unrestored Woman, which made big, beautiful noise last year. (Her story "Kavitha and Mustafa" also appeared in The Best American Short Stories 2015.) In a much-anticipated debut novel that opens in India, Poornima finds a best friend when her father hires Savitha to work one of their sari looms. Savitha has virtually nothing to her name but can find beauty anywhere, from the cloth they weave to the curve of a banana. But an awful act of cruelty drives Savitha away, and Poornima ends up hunting for her, moving through India's underworld and finally arriving at an apartment complex in Seattle. Big book club and library outreach.

Copyright 2017 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

January 8, 2018
Rao’s stirring debut novel (following the collection An Unrestored Woman) explores how far a woman will go to recapture the one sustaining relationship in her life. It’s 2001, and Poornima and Savitha are both considered poor marriage prospects in their Indian village of Indravalli, Poornima because she’s unattractive and defiant, Savitha because her family is desperately poor. When the two girls become acquainted, they recognize the value in one another that the rest of their world has failed to acknowledge. When, on the eve of Poornima’s eventual wedding to a man with imperfections of his own, tragedy befalls Savitha, the two girls are separated, seemingly forever. Affecting and rich in dramatic irony, the young women’s stories—told in alternating sections—follow their travels from village to city and eventually from India to Seattle. Although lengthy metaphysical musings threaten at times to derail the momentum, the narrative’s thematic consistency and emotional urgency will pull readers along. Vivid depictions of contemporary Indian culture and harrowing accounts of human trafficking—along with the novel’s ambiguous ending—will leave readers, and book clubs, with much to ponder and discuss.

Starred review from January 1, 2018
Left motherless at the age of 16, Poornima faces the traditional year of mourning until her father plans to marry her off. An Indian village girl who knows how to cook and weave, she has little to offer potential suitors, and more than one arranged match falls through. While she waits, she develops a deep friendship with Savitha, slightly older and from an even poorer family than hers, after her father hires Savitha to help work the loom. Named after the moon and the sun, the pair spins dreams of a future where their friendship can continue even after Poornima's marriage. But when a terrible crime rips them apart, their bond will be severely tested during a journey that stretches all the way to America, as each must face the depths of depravity to which people can sink. This powerful, heart-wrenching novel and its two unforgettable heroines offer an extraordinary example of the strength that can be summoned in even the most terrible situations. Although it is set in 2001, the obstacles each young woman faces, from cruel in-laws to sexual slavery, mutilation, and captivity, demonstrate that modern ideas of gender equality do not exist everywhere in the world. Despite everything they go through, their spirits continue to burn brightly, building to an ending that takes your breath away in its magnificence and beauty.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)

Starred review from January 1, 2018
Two friends and talented weavers navigate poverty, abuse, and the relentless pressure to find suitable husbands in contemporary South India.In Indravalli, a village that sits along the banks of the Krishna River, 16-year-old Poornima, which means full moon in Telugu, and 17-year-old Savitha, which means sun, cross paths when Poornima's father hires Savitha to help him meet the demand for new cotton saris. Savitha is industrious at the spinning wheel, or charkha, and weaving with Poornima is respite from searching garbage dumps for metal and plastic to sell to support her family. Mourning the recent death of her mother from cancer, Poornima finds in Savitha a mother figure, a gifted storyteller, and, as marriage looms, a confidante for her to express her fears that the man she's been arranged to marry is not what he seems. Though 12-hour days of weaving bind Poornima and Savitha together, a horrific crime tears them apart. Out in the world alone, with no knowledge of each other's whereabouts, they must find a way to maneuver the cruelties lobbed at women with no education and little money in both India and the United States. In this, her debut novel, Rao (An Unrestored Woman, 2016) has written an enchanting tale that alternates between Poornima's and Savitha's points of view. The book's earlier quiet and contemplative moments give way to the girls' intricately devised plans to escape their brutal circumstances, and an indefatigable courage fuels their dreams for a reunion. The resplendent prose captures the nuances and intensity of two best friends on the brink of an uncertain and precarious adulthood. "She made even the smallest of life seem grand, and for Poornima, who had always ached for something more...watching Savitha, watching her delight, was like cultivating her own."An incisive study of a friendship's unbreakable bond.

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Starred review from January 1, 2018

In this first novel, following Rao's well-received collection An Unrestored Woman, incredible storytelling immerses readers in the world of Poornima and Savitha, two poor girls from India. Lacking money and material goods, each uses her talents to try to improve her life. Savitha is skilled at weaving thread into cloth for saris, while Poornima easily picks up accounting skills. They both become victims of horrific abuse and are separated for several years. Poornima finds out that Savitha was forced to leave India and now works as a house cleaner in Seattle; later, she learns that the criminals who run the prostitution ring to which she is now enslaved also sent Savitha away. Poornima comes to America to search for Savitha, relentless in her determination to be reunited with her friend. Without descending into sentimentality, Rao relates this story with real power and humanity, and readers will wonder how many more books like this need to be written before people take action against the terrible abuse women endure. VERDICT Highly recommended for book discussion groups, this tale of sacrifice, exploitation, and reclamation is not to be missed. [See Prepub Alert, 9/25/17.]--Lisa Rohrbaugh, Leetonia Community P.L., OH

Copyright 2018 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.