Circa: A Novel

About this book

For fans of The Burning Girl by Claire Messud and Burnt Sugar by Avni Doshi a stunning gut-punch of a novel that follows a young Indian American woman who in the wake of tragedy must navigate her familys expectations as she grapples with a complicated love and loss. On the cusp of her eighteenth birthday Heera and her best friends siblings Marie and Marco tease the fun out of life in Raleigh North Carolina with acts of rebellion and delinquency. They paint the towns water towers with red anarchy symbols and hang out at the local bus station to pickpocket money for their Great Escape to New York. But no matter how much Heera defies her strict upbringing shes always avoided any real dangeruntil one devastating night changes everything. In its wake Marco reinvents himself as Crash and spends his days womanizing and burning through a string of jobs. Meanwhile Heeras dream to go to college in New York is suddenly upended. Over the years Heeras and Crashs paths cross and recross on a journey of dreams desires jealousies and betrayals. Heart-wrenching darkly funny and buoyed by gorgeous prose Circa is at once an irresistible love story and a portrait of a young woman torn between duty and her own survival between obligation and freedom.