Set in 1970s India, Charu is a 21-year-old Brahmin girl starting to teach at a British boarding school. She meets a white lesbian teacher, but their romance is disturbed by a sudden murder at the school.
Publisher’s Description:
A murder at a British boarding school in the hills of western India launches a young teacher on the journey of a lifetime
In 1974, three weeks before her twenty-first birthday, Charulata Apte arrives at Miss Timmins’ School for Girls in Panchgani. Shy, sheltered, and running from a scandal that disgraced her Brahmin family, Charu finds herself teaching Shakespeare to rich Indian girls in a boarding school still run like an outpost of the British Empire. In this small, foreign universe, Charu is drawn to the charismatic teacher Moira Prince, who introduces her to pot-smoking hippies, rock ‘n’ roll, and freedoms she never knew existed.
Then one monsoon night, a body is found at the bottom of a cliff, and the ordered worlds of school and town are thrown into chaos. When Charu is implicated in the murder—a case three intrepid schoolgirls take it upon themselves to solve—Charu’s real education begins.
Genre: Historical Fiction
Representation:
Gender:
Cis girls: Charu, Moira
Sexual Orientation:
Bisexual: Charu (note: Charu never uses the word bisexual to describe her sexuality but describes “being attracted to both sexes.”
Lesbian/Queer:Moira
Romantic Orientation:
Not explicitly addressed.
Race/Ethnicity:
Indian: Charu
White: Moira
Religion:
Hindu: Charu
Trigger Warnings:
Murder, dead queer
Additional Notes: Describes British colonialism.
Ownvoices: Indian