Nisha Sharma has created a multi-faceted gem of a storyline. Based on the forest of stories, tha Mahabharata, this retelling brings the descendants to fore with a South Asian focus on the demons or astral and rakshasis.
Laila Bansal is a descendant of Draupadi, wife of the five Pandavas, in the original epic. Karan is an descendant of Karna, the selfless bastard elder brother of her husbands, who sides with the wrong cousins. Nisha spins her tales weaving facts and redressing the grave injustice to Karna (imho), who was truly the best!
In a narrative, that spins from Indonesia to America, our sympathies for the protagonists turns to empathy in discussions of fate and responsibility versus the joy of having a full life and how choice makes the difficult decisions easier to abide. The book is a quick read and I was able to complete it in a couple of days. The story pace is fast and furious and the revelations are truly mind blowing. Hats off to the author for filling a void in enmeshing the epic to a modern tune!!
Many thank yous to Union Square & Co and Netgalley for the opportunity to read the ARC
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