Description
Description
A moving memoir by a survivor of anti-Muslim violence in contemporary India that delicately weaves political and family histories in a tribute to India's vibrant multiethnic society and the resilience of its women and minorities, especially in the face of growing religious extremism "A warning, thrown to the world, and a stunning debut-Chowdhary is a much-needed new voice."-Alexander Chee In 2002, Zara Chowdhary was sixteen years old and living with her family in Ahmedabad, one of India's fastest-growing metropolises, when a gruesome anti-Muslim pogrom upended her world. Instead of taking her school exams, she was put under a three-month lockdown with thousands of others, fearing for their community and their lives. The chief minister in the state at the time, Narendra Modi, accused of fomenting anti-Muslim violence, would become prime minister of India and lead a government committed to eroding the rights of India's 220 million Muslims. In The Lucky Ones, Chowdhary weaves the past and the present of her multigenerational Muslim family, juxtaposing the horrific violence of rising fascistic forces on the streets with the more mundane violence of patriarchal Indian joint families at the dinner table. Through the stories of sisters, daughters, and mothers raising each other, Chowdhary shows how women hold this world together with their ability to forgive, find laughter, and offer grace even as the world they know, and their place in it, is falling apart. With lyrical clarity and intimacy, The Lucky Ones is a poetic remembrance of how a country's promise of a multiethnic secular democracy can so easily dissolve and descend into extremism. Chowdhary's story is a protest against the erasure of India's Muslims, a testimony of a lost girlhood, and a testament to her family and country's entwined lives.
About the Author
About the Author
Zara Chowdhary is a writer and lecturer at the University of Wisconsin. She has an MFA in creative writing and environment from Iowa State University and a master's in writing for performance from the University of Leeds. She has previously written for documentary television, advertising, and film. She lives in Madison, Wisconsin with her partner, child, and two cats.
Critical Reviews
Critical Reviews
"A harrowing survivor's tale, an important history lesson, and a desperate warning from someone who has seen the tragic effects of ethnic violence."--Time "The Lucky Ones is a unique memoir in English of this largest-ever massacre in independent India. It is also about a communal crisis bringing a fractured family together. A must-read in our warring world today."--NPR "Easily the best memoir coming out of South Asia in recent years, The Lucky Ones is essential reading for anyone who loves great writing, told true and straight as an arrow to the heart."--Suketu Mehta, author of Pulitzer Finalist Maximum City: Bombay Lost and Found "The Lucky Ones is proof that it is in the voice of a minority population that a nation is revealed. Nobody knows a country better, nobody fights more fiercely for what is good in it, nobody has a greater stake, nobody has more profound ownership."--Kiran Desai, Booker Prize winning author of The Inheritance of Loss "A warning, thrown to the world, and a stunning debut--Chowdhary is a much-needed new voice."--Alexander Chee, author of How to Write an Autobiographical Novel "An astonishing feat of storytelling, an urgent reckoning with a past that feels all too present, and a moving ode to the women in her family, Chowdhary's memoir is one that should and will haunt you."--Nicole Chung, author of A Living Remedy "The Lucky Ones by Zara Chowdhary is a lacerating, gorgeous, unsettling recuperation of national memory from the forces of oblivion. She uncovers its roots and reveals, with shocking hope, what a vision for grace and kindness in the future may be."--Kazim Ali, author of Northern Light: Power, Land, and the Memory of Water "The Lucky Ones is a necessary, deep reckoning with history, identity, and violence. This memoir will break your heart and then repair it."--Beth Nguyen, author of Owner of a Lonely Heart "Blending lyrical writing and investigative reports, this is a necessary read--especially in these times of Islamophobia and genocide."--Lamya H, author of Hijab Butch Blues "The Lucky Ones is an act of urgent political witness, a refusal to allow the brutalities of twenty years ago to be forgotten--and repeated--today."--Tessa Hulls, author of Feeding Ghosts
"Chowdhary delivers an exceptional portrait of resilience in the face of unfathomable cruelty. This is difficult to forget."--Publishers Weekly, starred review "A visceral and eye-opening reading experience. Intense is not a strong enough word for the impact of Chowdhary's words. This is reading fire in your hands. Do not miss it."--Booklist, starred review "An elegantly rendered debut memoir of a Muslim family living through widespread religious violence . . . A tight, suspenseful narrative that interweaves one girl's keen observations of family within India's problematic history."--Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"Chowdhary delivers an exceptional portrait of resilience in the face of unfathomable cruelty. This is difficult to forget."--Publishers Weekly, starred review "A visceral and eye-opening reading experience. Intense is not a strong enough word for the impact of Chowdhary's words. This is reading fire in your hands. Do not miss it."--Booklist, starred review "An elegantly rendered debut memoir of a Muslim family living through widespread religious violence . . . A tight, suspenseful narrative that interweaves one girl's keen observations of family within India's problematic history."--Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
Publishing Information
Publishing Information
Publisher:
Crown Publishing Group (NY)
Pub date:
2024-07-16
Length:
288 pages
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