This is historical fiction at its best. JIndan lives in a village while her father works for the maharaja in Lahore. Her brother, Jawahar and Jindan steal produce from farms and their mother sews because her father doesn’t give the family enough money. As Jindan grows, she becomes more beautiful and her father sees her potential for marrying into a rich family. He takes her to Lahore after she pleads with him to take Jawahar too where her life is about to change forever.
This is my seventh year at reviewing my best reads, but the first time I’m mentioning You can’t clap with one hand. It’s my third manuscript, but the first to be published. The blurb on the back cover reads:
Growing up in a South Asian household in Uganda, Guli becomes an expert at crafting successful schemes to outwit her father and his misogynistic ways. Years later, when Idi Amin seizes power, the Nile becomes a grim stream of death and Guli fails to outsmart her husband. His ambition blinds him and thrusts her in a perilous situation with long lasting consequences.
It was inspired by my time in Uganda during Idi Amin’s rule and I’ve written about some of those experiences on my travel blog on wordpress—From here to there.
