Sakina’s Kiss

Shanbhag (Ghachar Ghochar) zeroes in on the growing cracks in an Indian family’s facade in this rich and stimulating novel. The comfortable life of Venkat and his wife, Viji, in Bengaluru is disrupted when two young men knock on their door, asking for the whereabouts of the couple’s daughter, Rekha, who is away from college at the family’s orchard in the country. What at first seems like a romantic quarrel soon reveals itself to be much more complicated when Rekha doesn’t return home. Venkat and Viji board a bus and head to the orchard, where they visit Suresh, a neighbor who was the last to see Rekha at the bus stand and who runs an activist magazine. Alongside the present-day plot, Shanbhag delves into Venkat’s past, including the disappearance of his uncle Ramana when he was young. The past and present join to create a fascinating and intricate portrait of Venkat, which in turn encompasses the contentious political, gender, and class dynamics of contemporary India. Throughout, Shanbhag is a master of restraint, spinning a deceptively simple story that culminates in an exquisite final act. This one’s a knockout. (June)