“The Illuminated is an extraordinary novel that catches your breath on the first page and simply won't let you put it down.”
ANDRÉ ACIMAN, author of ‘Call Me By Your Name’
Cover design by Holly Ovenden
The Illuminated
Named a notable book of 2021 in the Indian press by Times of India, The Telegraph, Vogue, GQ and others.
The 9 Best Upcoming Authors from India: The Independent.
HWR-Nielson Bestselling Books in India: Top 50 Fiction books.
︎ Out now in the U.K. by Head of Zeus.
Available to booksellers in Australia and New Zealand and across Europe, Africa, Asia, The Middle East and South America.
Get your copy now
GGe hhe h “An extremely elegant work, an interesting take on the universality of feminism from a uniquely Indian perspective.”
The Irish Independent
“How does Anindita Ghose know so much? Her sentences are like X-rays: nothing is hidden or can be hidden.”
AKHIL SHARMA, Folio Prize-winning author of ‘Family Life’
“A perfectly timed book...
Quietly, non-performatively political.”
Scroll.in
“Powerful, evocative and accomplished – it’s hard to believe The Illuminated is a debut.”
ALICE RYAN, author of ‘There’s Been a Little Incident’
'When the light shifts, you see the world differently.'
Against a rising tide of fundamentalism in India, a mother and daughter lose the most important man in their lives.
Shashi, fifty-something and suddenly widowed, tries to contact her only daughter, Tara, to break the news, but cannot reach her. As Shashi confronts her loss, she finds, amidst grief, unexpected new freedoms.
Meanwhile, Tara, a spoiled but brilliant university student, has retreated to Dharamsala to deal with the fall out from an ill-advised relationship.
Without the man that bound them, Shashi and Tara struggle to reconcile. But his absence also makes them a target for an emerging religious group determined to put women in their place, and Shashi and Tara individually prepare to defend their independence.
If mother and daughter are to come together, they must find a way to understand both their new world, and each other. But can you ever emerge from an eclipse unscathed?