The Blue Bedspread

A midnight phone call tells a man in Calcutta that his sister has died giving birth, and that he must keep her orphaned baby girl overnight until the adoptive parents come to collect her. Through one hot night, while the infant sleeps in the next room on a blue bedspread, he hurries to write stories for her about the family she was born into and the mother she will not know. Raj Kamal Jha's first novel was shortlisted for the Guardian First Book Award and won the Commonwealth Writers' Award for best first book in the Eurasia region.

Mohnish Pabrai calls Jha's first book terrific.