Hurda

A novel that is both racy and literary, based on a real-life crime, that has garnered serious advance praise.The story and the writing will appeal to true crime aficionados, readers of noir and crime fiction, and literary fiction.Atharva Pandit is a writer based in Mumbai. His writings have appeared in The Wire and the Economic and Political Weekly, among other publications. He was the 2021 South Asia Speaks fellow for fiction. Hurda is his first novel.Valentine's Day 2013 Murwani, a village in Maharashtra Three sisters-Anisha, Sanchita and Priyanka-disappear from school that afternoon. No one knows where they went or why, but everyone remembers they were up to no good. Six years later, a journalist from Mumbai returns to the scene of the crime and tries to piece together what exactly happened that fateful day. Hurda is that story told through the voices of the many whose lives intersected with those of the three sisters. Based on a real-life incident, this novel takes a surgical knife to contemporary India and sets up for display its pervasive and deep misogyny. Savagely hilarious and deeply disturbing, a whodunit as well as an examination of what the lives of women are worth, Hurda marks the arrival of a bold new voice from South Asia.An arresting and nightmarish portrait of violence and misogyny in rural IndiaI feel like I know what a murder investigation in rural India must be like. This is more an experience than a book; beware, you might end up haunted.Hurda is a stunning debut. Atharva Pandit's masterful storytelling voice left me spellbound.A remarkable debut-compassionate, polished, unsparing, technically adept. The multifarious voices together create a haunting melody of rural India. Read this right away.Reminiscent of Bolaño's polyphonous whirlpools, Pandit's novel deftly inverts the adage that it takes a village to raise a child. A remarkable debut.