Cracking India

Set in Lahore between 1943 and 1948, Bapsi Sidhwa's novel is narrated by Lenny, a young Parsee girl struck by polio in infancy. Lenny spends most of her days with Shanta, her ayah, a Hindu woman of 18 from Amritsar whose many admirers form a cross section of the city before Partition. Through that bond Lenny learns about adult relationships, while India moves toward independence and division into two countries. Two of its major themes are sexual awakening and communal identity, told almost wholly in the present tense. Like her narrator, Sidhwa is Parsi, had polio as a child and grew up in Lahore. First published in England as Ice Candy Man, the novel was adapted into the film Earth.

Mohnish Pabrai called Sidhwa an awesome writer and the novel wonderful, and he recommends both the book and Earth, the Mira Nair film made from part of it.