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Spanning more than half a century and cities from New Delhi to Atlanta, Anjali Enjeti’s debut is a heartfelt and human portrait of the long shadow of the Partition of India on the lives of three generations of women.
The story begins in August 1947. Unrest plagues the streets of New Delhi leading up to the birth of the Muslim majority nation of Pakistan, and the Hindu majority nation of India. Sixteen-year-old Deepa navigates the changing politics of her home, finding solace in messages of intricate origami from her secret boyfriend Amir. Soon Amir flees with his family to Pakistan and a tragedy forces Deepa to leave the subcontinent forever.
The story also begins sixty years later and half a world away, in Atlanta. While grieving both a pregnancy loss and the implosion of her marriage, Deepa’s granddaughter Shan begins the search for her estranged grandmother, a prickly woman who had little interest in knowing her. As she pieces together her family history shattered by the Partition, Shan discovers how little she actually knows about the women in her family and what they endured.
For readers of Jess Walter’s Beautiful Ruins, The Parted Earth follows Shan on her search for identity after loss uproots her life. Above all, it is a novel about families weathering the lasting violence of separation, and how it can often takes a lifetime to find unity and peace.
'Though an author's note says that only the historical aspects of this story are nonfictional, the fact that a character shares a name with one of Enjeti's grandmothers (as seen in the dedication) underlines the pulse of truth that makes this book feel so urgent and important. Illuminating, absorbing, and resonant.' — Kirkus Reviews
'This intergenerational account of remembering and reconciliation sits comfortably alongside works of its kind.' — Publishers Weekly
'The Parted Earth is an epic novel of home and homeland, family and community, love and betrayal. In Anjali Enjeti’s deft hands, the story of a woman’s search for her grandfather, and for a connection to the ancestors, is brought to life. A fantastic debut.' — Laila Lalami, author of The Other Americans
'In this captivating, far-reaching debut, Anjali Enjeti, brings to life one family's decades-long search for love, peace and a place to call home.' —Jenny Offill, Weather
'Epic in scope, intimate in the telling, Anjali Enjeti's The Parted Earth is a devastating portrayal of Partition and the trauma it wreaked in the generations that followed. The gripping love story of Deepa and Amir cuts across decades, in a journey through New Delhi, London, Atlanta and across the Indian diaspora. A magnificent debut.' — Vanessa Hua, author of A River of Stars
'A deeply affecting novel about the ways in which the fates of individuals and the sub-continent itself were fractured by Partition as well as the magic by which we find our way back to ourselves and each other through time and space.' — Nayomi Munaweera, author of What Lies Between Us
