It’s the spring of 1984 in British Columbia, and life is just getting exciting for Esha. A secret that looms over her family has reinforced her proud resistance to her family’s Indian identity. However, one day changes everything, and Eshas well-thought-out rebellion is put to the test. In the blink of an eye, she is forced to step up and fulfill her father’s last wish, taking her thousands of miles away to a place she never dreamed of visiting: India. Forced to follow traditions she has denied her whole life and fighting the temptations of an unlikely love interest, Esha must now confront her new reality. As she comes to understand her heritage, she also becomes a victim of the highly unstable political climate in 1984 Delhi. Prime Minister Indira Gandhi has just been assassinated, political tensions rise, and now only one chant can be heard: Blood for blood. Esha must fight to survive the three days of brutal chaos that erupts throughout Delhi in the aftermath of the prime minister’s assassination.

Born and raised in Toronto, Nav has been writing since the first moment her parents placed a blank journal and a sharp pencil in front of her. The incoherent thoughts soon became short stories, and the short stories eventually found their way to a full-length novel. Appreciating the hard work of her parents, who both migrated to Canada from Punjab, India in the 1970s and 1980s, Nav obtained an Honours Degree in Political Science from York University, followed by Law School at the University of London, in England. During this time, she also engaged in youth politics, government and human rights. These activities included the Model UN at university and in running for election as city councillor in her hometown of Brampton, Ontario. She also contributed editorials to various ethnic newspapers, where she discussed relevant community issues and offered political commentary. She has been published in the Toronto Star and has also been featured in the same paper for her attempts to bring political awareness to the youth in her area.

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Under the Moonlit Sky

As Karma opens, Maya and her father are bound for India, the birthplace of Maya’s Sikh father and her Hindu mother. This is no joyful first meeting between the Indian family and Canadian-born Maya. They are taking the ashes of Maya’s mother home and they are reeling from the shock of her recent suicide.

Their struggles are only beginning; the two arrive in New Delhi the very night that India’s prime minister, Indira Gandhi, is killed. What follows is a bloody, unspeakably violent and horrific retaliation against the Sikhs, a systematic massacre of thousands. Maya and her father are separated and she finds herself lost in a world of terror beyond her wildest imaginings. She is taken in by a Hindu family whose adopted son, Sandeep, cares for her, gently reaching out to her and coaxing her back into the world that has hurt her so deeply.

This exquisite novel-in-verse is told both from Maya’s point of view and from Sandeep’s. It is intense and unforgettable, poignant and powerful, and as achingly beautiful as the drifting desert sands of India itself. Ostlere evokes the majesty and mysteriousness of the landscape as well as the people of India even as she depicts the shocking cruelty and callousness that exist in equal measure. As Maya’s and Sandeep’s stories unfold and intertwine, readers feel their sufferings, rejoice in their small victories and share in their efforts to understand how such terrible things can happen in the world. When Maya relates the chaos and the atrocities that she witnesses, she brings this terrible time in India’s recent history into crystal-clear relief. It is not hard to imagine why she retreats into silence. Sandeep’s determination to reach her, and to protect her, makes this as much a beautiful love story as it is a brutal witness. This is a book that deftly and lyrically reveals the complexities of the human heart while bringing to life a shameful example of hatred in our modern world.

Readers who are interested in the events of this time and place may also wish to check out Under the Moonlit Sky by Nav K. Gill, another recent young adult novel in which a Canadian girl makes her first trip to India to return her father’s ashes to his homeland. Like Maya, Esha soon finds herself in the midst of the terrible aftermath of Gandhi’s assassination. Gill describes these events in chilling detail, bringing readers into the very heart of Esha and her family’s fight to survive and into the very midst of the turmoil. Together these books help give teen readers insight into this notoften- discussed episode in our recent past.