Category: Fiction
Rights available: All rights available
The Girl has always known the boundaries of her world.
Born into a poor village where a woman’s future is decided by her family, she dreams of an education, independence and a life beyond the fields. But when she is abducted by traffickers, the future she has imagined vanishes overnight. Her struggle to return home takes her into a world where women’s bodies are treated as commodities, the powerful act with impunity, and justice is rarely guaranteed.
On the run, she encounters Lakshmi, a transgender performer who has survived a lifetime of rejection, loneliness and prejudice. Wary of one another, the two form an unlikely alliance, bound by their shared experience of a society that insists on defining who they can be.
As the Girl searches for a way to reclaim her life, Lakshmi pursues a love that has long eluded her. Both find themselves drawn into a dangerous web of desire, betrayal and revenge.
Meanwhile, Inspector Balasubramaniam investigates a murder that threatens to expose secrets reaching far beyond a single crime. His investigation intersects with the lives of a privileged young man, his conflicted friend, and a society where wealth and influence can conceal even the ugliest truths.
As their paths converge, Crossed Lives reveals how seemingly disparate lives are bound together by violence, complicity, compassion and the possibility of redemption. Moving from rural deprivation to urban ambition, and from the margins of society to the corridors of privilege, Timeri N. Murari offers a provocative portrait of contemporary India and those who struggle to find freedom on their own terms.
The author: Timeri N. Murari