When you read what feels like the perfect opening sentence, you just know everything is going to fall into place and that the book will make you either think, weep, or laugh. And if the writer really knows her subject and characters, then even all three. Avni Doshi’s debut novel ‘The Girl in White Cotton’ falls into the latter category, evoking a mix of emotions you struggle to contain.

The opening line—‘I would be lying if I said my mother’s misery has never given me pleasure’—hints at the unraveling of a complex relationship. Stories where a relationship is the crux of the narrative are, in my experience, rarely disappointing. Here, it’s a mother-daughter relationship that is being explored.

The story is narrated by Antara who had a tricky relationship with her largely detached mother, Tara, as she was growing up. Tara never prioritized Antara’s wellbeing and happiness and thus she had a difficult childhood. Then Tara starts forgetting things and Antara finds herself having to care for her. Antara struggles with conflicting emotions, torn between what feels like love and the need to put the past in the past.

What makes The Girl in White Cotton better than most books based on relationships between parents and children is the fact that the characters feel so real—you identify with their traits and behaviors and you see glimpses of yourself in them. The story too is raw and relatable. Doshi’s writing is sharp, witty, and empathetic. This was one of the very few books where I found myself marking lines and entire pages just to reread them later on. And I have done so many times already since I finished reading it at the start of 2021. 

Alternatively published as ‘Burnt Sugar’ in the UK (after it was originally published in India as The Girl in White Cotton in 2019), the novel was shortlisted for The Booker Prize 2020 and named NPR’s Best Book of 2020. Every media raved about it and it sold many translation rights much before the Booker Prize winner was announced. Though Douglas Stuart’s ‘Shuggie Bain’ won, I feel Shuggie Bain and other Booker Prize shortlists didn’t get as much attention and love as Doshi’s book. But having read it, loved it, and recommended it to over a dozen people, I’m no longer surprised that the book got as much press as it did.

The Girl in White Cotton or Burnt Sugar, whichever title sounds better to you (though I prefer the former), is a story about many things—family, love, relationships, responsibilities and obligations, unresolved issues, memory and how it fails us, trust, and how life is never ever neatly packaged but precious nonetheless. With so many serious issues, the story has all the potential to go haywire. But you would be surprised how beautifully Doshi has managed to tie all of them together. The result is a story that catches you off-guard while reading and then continues to haunt you long after.

Rating: 4 stars
Fiction
The Girl in White Cotton
Avni Doshi
Published: 2019
Publisher: Fourth Estate
Language: English
Pages: 277, Paperback