Born in the poor Indian village of Gopalpur, Mamta's misery is compounded by her low caste. Landed with a husband only interested in selling her body parts on the black market, Mamta escapes to start a new life under the city lights of Begumpet.
In Gopalpur's Big House, meanwhile, where the Sahib family are village feudal overlords, a power struggle breaks out between two brothers. Lokend is the pacifist looking to abolishing the village's feudal structure, while Ram Singh, the elder, is intent on maintaining the family tradition.
Dipika Rai's debut novel is a delicate, multigenerational story about the different faces of Indian society. With a cast of characters that includes gentry, peasants, bandits and city sweepers, she attempts to portray an India on the fast track to progress but hamstrung by outdated traditions.
With such an ambitious reach, characterisation is often sacrificed in favour of broad, stilted descriptions. Mamta's father, for example, is a "dictatorial, loveless, cruel man". Yet when Rai sets her sights on the beatings and torture of women in India's rural communities, her writing takes on real power.