The Girl

‘A classic . . . beautiful lyricism, poetic passages and evocative descriptions of Goa’ —Deccan Herald

On a gloomy November evening in a sleepy village in Goa, it’s time for yet another funeral. The Girl is dead and no one in Azul is surprised. But two men who knew and loved her are achingly curious to discover what made her give up her life to the sea.

As they turn the pages of her diary, a story unravels—of loneliness and abandonment, of memories branded so deep that they return to haunt the soul, and of hope so powerful that it negates reality and opens the doors to a future that is never to be.

Richly atmospheric and written with unusual lyricism, The Girl is an outstanding debut—a tender and disquieting story about love and its infinite capacity for betrayal.

Press Reviews

‘A classic . . . beautiful lyricism, poetic passages and evocative descriptions of Goa’—Deccan Herald

‘This lyrical first novel is rich with dark visual imagery’—India Today

A literary voice that has taken the measure of the most extreme human emotions—love, rage and grief—and, too, of what lies beyond: the desire for blessed release. The girl has wisdom, tenderness, and a sort of agelessness that sets it apart from much other contemporary fiction in English coming out of India’—Far Eastern Economic Review