Girls Burn Brighter
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3.6 • 10 Ratings
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
'A treat for Ferrante fans, exploring the bonds of friendship and how female ambition beats against the strictures of poverty and patriarchal societies'
Huffington Post
An electrifying debut novel - the story of the unbreakable bond between two girls driven apart, and their journeys across continents to find each other again.
Poornima and Savitha, born in poverty, have known little kindness in their lives until they meet as teenagers. When an act of devastating cruelty drives Savitha away, Poornima leaves behind everything she has ever known to find her friend.
Alternating between the girls' perspectives as they face apparently insurmountable obstacles on their travels through the darkest corners of India's underworld and across an ocean, Girls Burn Brighter introduces two heroines who refuse to lose the hope that burns within.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Shobha Rao’s debut novel is nothing less than a masterpiece. It’s the story of the extraordinary friendship between Poornima and Savitha, two girls from the same Indian village whose lives diverge and intersect in stunning and often tragic ways. Brutal and almost unbearably beautiful, Rao’s portrayal of female resilience in the face of unimaginable trials is a potent reminder that power, like love, comes in many forms.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
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.
Customer Reviews
I burned brighter
Wow! Beautifully written. Had me captivated and needing to keep going from the start. All manners of human depravity touched upon but in such a way that it moves you. Loved the main characters.