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Leila

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Leila

Written by: Prayaag Akbar
Narrated by: Tania Rodrigues
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About this listen

Now a Netflix Original series, this tale of motherly love blends the enthralling urgency of The Girl in the Red Coat with the political force of Slumdog Millionaire. 

Every year on Leila's birthday Shalini kneels by the wall with a little yellow spade and scoops dry earth to make a pit for two candles. One each for herself and for Riz, the husband at her side. But as Shalini walks from the patch of grass where she held her vigil the man beside her melts away. It is 16 years since they took her, her daughter's third birthday party, the last time she saw the three people she loves most dearly: her mother, her husband, her child. There are 32 candle stubs buried in that lawn, and Shalini believes her search is finally drawing to a close. When she finds Leila, she will return and dig up each and every one.

©2018 Prayaag Akbar (P)2019 W. F. Howes Ltd Genre Fiction Literary Fiction

Critic Reviews

"[A] beautifully written debut novel."(The Pool)
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Filmy, superficial, reactionary in its message although it takes about caste and religious fanaticism and the imminent danger of autocracy.

Filmy, superficial, reactionary in its message...

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the book is amazing, the story grips you to the last, but the accent of the reader distracts as she mispronounces a lot of Hindi words...

Gripping, but the accent distracts

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