ABOUT THE BOOK
Sven makes a promise to wait for Valsa. “Go see the world, little one, love, live, and experience some more. We will be waiting, ‘Raavilath’ and I for your return.” A promise that is her breath and motivation to live, holding her frail world together as she grows up loved by her grandmother but hated by her grandfather who called her the ‘devil’s seed’ that had come to destroy the ancient clan.
Sven protects her from his anger and hostility. Why did grandmother still send her away to the USA from Raavilath to grow up? Feeling betrayed by the family at the homestead and longing to belong to ‘Raavilath’, she befriends Glenda, her American classmate and her stepbrother Jason, a medical student, a doppelgänger of Sven.
Sven, the Swedish Indian cousin breaks the promise, marrying Erika and the family keeps it a secret from Valsa. Devastated and shattered she feels split into two. The betrayal is unbearable and she tortures her body on the broken glass pieces of her heart. She cuts all relations and leads a reckless life spiralling into drugs and fueling her hurt and pain into art. Brought back from the brink of death she survives and learns to live again.
Whom does she choose as her true love? Tangled in the web of living, will love be a prison or a protection?
A bitter-sweet emotional story of love, hate and redemption, unravelling secrets of a multicultural generation set in Kerala and the USA.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Nirmala Pillai is a writer and painter. A graduate in Microbiology and a postgraduate in English Literature, she chose Civil Services as her calling. Through her demanding career in Telecom finance, the love of creative writing sustained her.
She has published a collection of short stories titled ‘The Singing Earth’ and three collections of poems.
Her creative pieces have been published in various magazines in India like PEN, The Asian Age, Indian Literature, Bare Root review from Minnesota University, Poetry Can, UK [Poetry Southwest], Kritya, The Telegraph, The Little Magazine, Cha; an Asian literary journal from HONG-KONG.
Her short story was short-listed for the South Asian Award by The Little magazine published in Delhi. Another poem was shortlisted for a competition held by the British Council and Unisun publications, Bangalore.
She is also a passionate painter and has held painting exhibitions in Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, Kochi etc. The latest exhibition was in April 2022 at Jehangir Art Gallery in Mumbai.
