Rescuing a River Breeze

Longlisted for the McKitterick Prize 2021An evocative debut exploring history, nationhood and selfA retelling of the last days of Portuguese rule in Goa, a little-known slice of Indian historyOne of the year's most exciting debutsMrinalini Harchandrai's poetry has been longlisted for the erbacce-prize 2022. She was a finalist for the Quarterly West Poetry Prize 2021 and Stephen A. DiBiase Poetry Prize 2019 and received an Honourable Mention for the CID Pearlman Performance Project 2021. Her short fiction has been longlisted for the Commonwealth Short Story Prize 2018 and shortlisted for the Columbia Journal Spring 2020 Contest. Her first novel, Rescuing a River Breeze, was longlisted for the McKitterick Prize 2021.It is 1961 and Goa is under Portuguese rule. In the heart of Panjim, life is as usual on the banks of the river Mandovi. Thirteen-year-old Shirly Quarachim's idyllic days include outings to her father's mines, convent school shenanigans and prep for an upcoming musical. She is also falling in love for the first time. But the drums of war are being readied. Indian forces amass across the border, while the Portuguese dictator António Salazar is determined to burn everything down before giving up Goa. When Shirly's beloved father is arrested on charges of treason, she must put her teenage reveries aside and face off against intimidating dhowmen, resistance fighters and a sadistic police officer who loves a bit of torture. Through this exquisite tale of a girl on the cusp of womanhood, Rescuing a River Breeze draws a vivid portrait of a bygone era and a people wrestling with identity and nationhood.A lyrical history of the liberation of Goa through the eyes of a girl on the cusp of womanhood