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Content snapshot
Flag an inaccuracy →What's in this book, at a glance — five things readers want to know before they start.
Violence
A lot
Child abuse and neglect are the spine of the book — a child abandoned, humiliated, and left in unsafe hands
Language
Some
Restrained
Sexual Content
Very heavy
Reviewers list pedophilia and rape among the content warnings; Antara's recollections of what happened to her as a child at the ashram are among the memories the novel keeps circling and disputing
Substance Use
Some
Peripheral
Emotional Intensity
This is the heaviest category by a distance: dementia depicted without sentiment, a mother-daughter bond built entirely out of harm, and a narrator whose memory may not be trustworthy
What this book is about
Antara, an artist in Pune, becomes caregiver to the mother who dragged her through an ashram childhood and years of neglect, just as dementia begins erasing the woman's capacity to be held accountable. Deedi Reads lists content warnings for toxic parental relationships, child abuse, dementia, pedophilia and rape, and pregnancy and childbirth, and quotes the line "I suffered at her hands as a child, and any pain she subsequently endured appeared to me to be a kind of redemption." Reviewers repeatedly note that Antara is unreliable: she surfaces a dark childhood memory and a relative immediately contradicts it. Booker-shortlisted in 2020, and cold to the touch by design.
Notes for sensitive readers
Reader-flagged moments and themes that may affect your experience.
Child sexual abuse recalled by an unreliable narrator
Unflinching depiction of dementia and caregiving
A mother-daughter relationship with no redemptive turn
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