Moth
India in 1947 is a land torn by violence: violence caused by the pen-stroke that turned India of the British Raj into two new countries, India and Pakistan. India is Hindu, Pakistan is Muslim, and the transition is anything but peaceful. Partition was one of the greatest upheavals in history, with millions of people moving across the new borders. Many of them never arrived in their new home; trains full of dead bodies arrived instead. Women were at particular risk, many being kidnapped and taken into a strange country to live new lives with strangers.
Alma is fourteen and looking forward to her marriage. But her grandmother thinks her far too young for marriage and demands Alma come to stay with her. What should have been a quick train trip devolves into disaster. And Alma’s life is forever changed.
Moth is a fine novel, beautifully written, but its very strengths made it hard for me to like. The tone grows darker and darker through the course of the novel, and the book doesn’t flinch away from the strong emotions engendered by Partition. The sudden suspicion of long-known neighbors, the tensions between groups that had lived side by side for generations, and the sheer fear that lay over everything produces a vivid—almost too-vivid—novel. I recommend Moth, but it’s important to know that it covers very intense themes.
