A Thousand Times Before is a sapphic love and marriage between two women, Ayukta and her wife Nadya. They are pulled apart by one issue: Nadya wants a child, but Ayukta doesn’t. Aykuta has a secret she doesn’t tell her wife until she is about to lose her over the issue of children: that she, Akyuta, is the recipient of a family heirloom, a magical tapestry handed down typically from mother to daughter. It allows the women to record their past as well as to influence the future by adding new elements. I admit I was somewhat confused in the beginning until I realized this was a sapphic relationship.
There is a touch of magical realism here with the tapestry, but the novel is more about the Partition of British India into the separate countries of India and Pakistan separated by the Radcliffe Line in 1947. India became primarily a Hindu country while Pakistan became a primarily Muslim country. About 14.5 million people moved from one country to another, resulting in massive numbers of refugees. Hundreds of thousands of people were killed during violent episodes at the time. Author Thanki writes of the time without giving much background. This book is probably best read by someone who has some sense of what the Partition was like.
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A Thousand Times Before (Penguin, July 9, 2024) is available through:
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