The Parted Earth

March 22, 2021
Enjeti documents the impact of India’s Partition on successive generations in her immersive debut novel (after the essay collection Southbound). In 1947, British India is on the brink of being decolonized, with the lives of millions hanging in the balance. Hindu teenager Deepa Khanna’s doctor parents confront escalating hostilities from Hindu Indians because of their willingness to treat Muslims, while Deepa becomes secretly attracted to her Muslim friend Amir. After Deepa’s parents are killed in an attack, she moves to London and Amir leaves for Pakistan. The story then shifts to Deepa’s granddaughter Shan, who, following a miscarriage and subsequent divorce in 2016, begins digging into her past, finally uncovering the reason for her grandmother’s aloofness. Deepa’s experience renders her “unknowable” to Shan, filling Deepa with a grief that “seemed to burden generations of Khannas” with guilt. Meanwhile, other stories emerge of the Partition, from characters such as Shan’s neighbor, Chandani Singh, who supports Shan through her difficulties, and Chandani’s late husband, Harjeet, spinning an increasingly broad set of voices. While no less affecting, these supporting accounts receive an imbalanced, sometimes disproportionate attention that can detract from the novel’s main characters. Still, this intergenerational account of remembering and reconciliation sits comfortably alongside works of its kind.

April 1, 2021
Before partition, the bloody 1947 cleaving that established India and Pakistan, Deepa was a happy teen in Delhi, loved by two parents who ran a medical clinic serving all in need. But hatred, politics, and fire destroyed her life. She left India, seemingly if not exactly alone, to live with her godparents in London, but tragedy continued to follow her. Fast forward two generations to Atlanta, where Shanti, who prefers the ambiguity of "Shan," has recently quit her legal firm after not making partner. A tragic miscarriage has forced her to rethink her future, and she finally realizes that she's ready to divorce her unreliable husband. Having lost her Indian father as a young child and being raised by her single white mother means Shan has also been estranged from her cultural heritage. Her older neighbor Chandani, a recent widow, provides Shan with the understanding and motivation to confront and reconnect with her past. Former attorney, activist, and journalist Enjeti has created a first novel that adroitly explores the lasting impacts of families fractured and repaired.

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March 15, 2021
Three generations of an Indian family deal with the aftermath of the 1947 Partition. Enjeti's fiction debut, a carefully constructed riddle of a story told in clean, simple prose, begins in New Delhi in the hot summer of 1947, when supersmart 16-year-old Deepa gets her first taste of romance, finding origami notes from handsome Amir hidden in a plant in her family's garden. But the precarious political situation in India quickly turns toxic as the British government carries out its plan to divide the country into two parts--majority Hindu, majority Muslim, now India and Pakistan. With violence exploding around them and Amir's Muslim family set to leave town, the two plight their troth. The next section of the book, set mostly in 2016 in Atlanta, Georgia, centers on Deepa's granddaughter, a young American woman originally named Shanti--she's changed it to Shan--who is looking forward to partnership at her law firm and the birth of her first child. When her life is turned upside down, she connects with an Indian immigrant neighbor, and journeys of discovery begin for both women, with the help of a remembrance and reconciliation website similar to those projects that have been created to heal the wounds of the past in Africa, Australia, and elsewhere. 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.

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