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"The saga of one family's trials through India's tumultuous partition--when Pakistan split from India--exploring its impact on women, what it means to be othered, and the redemptive power of family"-- Delhi, 1946. Fourteen-year-old Alma is soon to be married despite her parents' fear that she is far too young. But times are perilous in India, where the country's long-awaited independence from the British empire heralds a new era of hope--and danger. In its wake, political unrest ripples across the subcontinent, marked by violent confrontations between Hindus and Muslims. The conflict threatens to unravel the rich tapestry of Delhi--a city where different cultures, religions, and traditions have co-existed for centuries. The solution is partition, which will create a new, wholly Muslim, sovereign nation--Pakistan--carved from India's northwestern shoulder. Given the uncertain times, Alma's parents, intellectuals who teach at the local university, pray that marriage will provide Alma with stability and safety. Precocious and headstrong, Alma's excitement over the wedding rivals only her joy in spinning wild stories about evil spirits for her younger sister Roop. But when Alma's grandmother--a woman determined to protect the family's honor no matter the cost--interferes with the engagement, her meddling sets off a chain of events that will wrench the family apart, forcing its members to find new and increasingly desperate ways to survive in the wake of partition. Set during the most tumultuous years in modern Indian history, Melody Razak recreates the painful turmoil of a rupturing nation and its reverberations across the fates of a single family. Powerfully evocative and atmospheric, Moth is a testament to survival and a celebration of the beauty and resiliency of the human spirit.… (more)
User reviews
Gradually violence between the Muslims and Hindus increases making life more and more dangerous. Agreement is made for Alma to go to Bombay to live with her Aunt even though the trip will be extremely dangerous.
The third section of the book centers on her life after being raped and taken from the train. She is pregnant and being carried for four kindly Muslim women. Alma takes up a friendship with a man of a low chaste which is unheard of.
The book was interesting but difficult to read and I had to look up so many names for food, items, war, etc. and a better understanding of the history of the country during that time would have been helpful. There was one character, Roop, Alma's little sister, who is almost a savage hurting animals (especially moths), that she just doesn't seem believable. Still glad for learning something of the background of that time.