Author: Shobha Rao
Shobha Rao’s electrifying debut novel “Girls Burn Brighter” set in India and America, about a once-in-a-lifetime friendship between two girls Savitha and Poornima from Indravalli in Karnataka who are driven apart but never stop trying to find one another again.
Savitha is exuberant and loves pairing her bland rice and yogurt with sweet bananas, while Poornima, quieter, observes and envies this ability to find flavor in a flavorless world. Their path, which takes them through other parts of South India and eventually to the United States, is related mostly through the alternating perspectives of the two girls.
The story lines, for the most part, are deftly woven together despite a few too many convenient coincidences toward the end. Throughout the book Shobha Rao tackles the most urgent issues facing women today: domestic abuse, human trafficking, immigration, and feminism.
> Shatabdi Sarker Poushi
