When Impossible Happens
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- $9.99
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
A poignant story of life in India during the pandemic that mixes loss, hope, and even a mystery solved by imaginative, lively, almost-nine-year-old Swara.
When the pandemic hits and India goes into lockdown, high-spirited Swara keeps up her daily chats with her just-as-imaginative grandmother, Pitter Paati, through video calls. But soon Pitter Paati becomes too ill to even call, and then Swara's parents say she has died of the virus.
Swara can't believe it. Pitter Paati would not just leave! It's impossible!
As Swara investigates the mystery of her grandmother’s disappearance, she stumbles upon a neighborhood mystery as well. With help from her friends, usually-annoying brother, and clues she’s certain came from Pitter Paati, Swara solves that very real mystery and, slowly, comes to terms with the truth about her grandmother.
She also realizes Pitter Paati will be with her, in many important ways, forever.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
During lockdown in Bengaluru, India, when "you couldn't open a window to draw in a deep breath," eight-year-old Swarna longs to see her "favorite person in the world," maternal grandmother Pitter Paati. When usually "fizzy-busy" Pitter Paati, who lives on the city's outskirts, falls ill and dies suddenly from the virus before Swarna can see her, the girl's family merely tells her that her grandmother is "gone." Swarna naturally finds the prospect of this sudden disappearance "V. Ridiculous. V. Impossible!" She's sure that her detective-fiction-loving grandmother, who affectionately called her Little Miss Marble, has left clues to her whereabouts, and she dives into an inquiry from the confines of her family's apartment. As she stares out of her bedroom window, she contemplates her grandmother's apparent disappearance as well as a Rear Window–like scenario that unfurls under her gaze. Interspersed with occasional lists and poems, brief, conversational third-person chapters trace the stages of grief, accompanying Swarna's investigation and deeply felt emotional beats as she slowly comes to terms with her loss. It's a compassionately rendered story, told with hope, humor, and pathos, for anyone navigating dark times. Ages 8–12.
