There are no stray words, no unnecessary flourishes. The narrative, written in first person from Shalini’s point of view, doesn’t waste a sentence. Shalini is placed in an internment camp - suddenly forced into the life of someone completely at the mercy of an intrusive, autocratic State. They have a daughter, who is taken away for being ‘mixed’. A privileged Hindu girl, she marries an equally well-off Muslim boy even as the world around her marches towards segregation.
It does rely on all the elements of stories like Animal Farm - the protagonist Shalini lives in an India that’s sorely divided, with walled ‘communities’ distinguished by religion. To call Akbar’s novel a dystopian fantasy is not quite correct. No light at the end of the tunnel? The canal at the Tunnel de Roue, near Marseilles, pictured in 1930.(Getty Images) Anchored by the heart-wrenching story of a woman’s desperate search for her daughter, Leila offers readers a picture of their potential future. Leila, Prayaag Akbar’s debut novel, straddles the line between surrealism and a clear vision of the direction in which our society appears to be heading.
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