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Grove Press
New York
Also by Sonia Faleiro
Beautiful Thing: Inside the Secret World of Bombay’s Dance Bars
The Girl
UM
IFM and ZFM
Copyright © 2021 by Sonia Faleiro
Maps © Emily Maffei
Jacket design by Ahlawat Gunjan
Jacket photograph © Simon Wilkes/Unsplash
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First published in Great Britain in 2021 by Bloomsbury Circus, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc.
First Grove Atlantic hardcover edition: February 2021
Printed in Canada
ISBN 978-0-8021-5820-8
eISBN 978-0-8021-5821-5
Typeset by Newgen KnowledgeWorks Pvt. Ltd., Chennai, India
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication data is available for this title.
Grove Press
an imprint of Grove Atlantic
154 West 14th Street
New York, NY 10011
Distributed by Publishers Group West
‘Women must particularly be guarded against evil inclinations, however trifling [they may appear]; for, if they are not guarded, they will bring sorrow on two families.’
—The Laws of Manu
Index of Characters
The Village of Katra
Padma Shakya, sixteen years old
Her father Jeevan Lal, a farmer, and stepmother Sunita Devi
Ram Sakhi, Padma’s biological mother who died when she was two years old
Lalli Shakya, fourteen years old
Her father Sohan Lal, the Shakya family patriarch and older brother to Jeevan Lal and Ram Babu, his wife Siya Devi and their four other children: daughter Phoolan and sons Virender, Parvesh and Avnesh. Lalli is their youngest daughter
Ram Babu, Padma and Lalli’s paternal uncle, his wife Guddo and their seven children
Ramdevi, Padma and Lalli’s paternal grandmother who lives with Jeevan Lal and family
Manju Shakya, a cousin spending her summer holidays with Lalli’s family, aged twelve
A first cousin of the Shakya brothers, Babu ‘Nazru’ Ram, aged twenty-six. He lives with his family in the midst of the Katra fields
Rajiv Kumar Yadav, a neighbour who draws Nazru’s attention to the girls’ behaviour in the fields
Yogendra Singh Shakya, a prosperous cousin of the Shakya brothers, who the brothers often turned to for help
Prem Singh Shakya, Yogendra’s brother. He saw Lalli talking on the phone on the day she disappeared
Their father, Neksu Lal
The Hamlet of Jati
Darvesh ‘Pappu’ Yadav, aged nineteen, watermelon farmer
His father Veerpal ‘Veere’ Yadav, mother Jhalla Devi and brothers Avdesh and Urvesh, both in their twenties
Avdesh’s wife, Basanta, and their infant daughter Shivani
Pappu’s cousin and close friend Raju, in whose shack he often spent the night
The Village of Nabiganj
Ram Chander, Padma’s oldest maternal uncle and her late mother’s oldest brother
His son, Ram Avtar, aged eighteen
His younger brother Kanhaiya Lal, who had been told a dream that predicted what happened to the girls
Ram Chander’s three other brothers, who, along with their families, comprise around thirty people living together
Police
Sub-Inspector Ram Vilas Yadav, aged fifty-seven, in charge of the police outpost located in Katra village
Chattrapal Singh Gangwar, aged fifty-six, recently promoted to Head Constable
Constable Sarvesh Yadav, aged thirty-nine, accused of dereliction of duty towards the Shakya villagers
Constable Raghunandan Singh Yadav, who assisted the family
Constable Satinder Pal Singh Yadav, a quiet man who did as he was told
Inspector Ganga Singh Yadav, Station Officer of the police station in Ushait and first Inspecting Officer on the case
Mukesh Kumar Saxena, a locally powerful police officer who went on to head a Special Investigation Team on the case
Maan Singh Chauhan, Superintendent
