Category: Fiction
Publisher: Simon and Schuster (forthcoming)
Rights: All rights available
Sometime in 2020, just before the pandemic gains the attention of governments all over the world, a middle-aged woman wakes up in a hospital with no idea of who she is. The nurses tell her that the amnesia is the result of a head injury, and will pass, but she is disturbed when she finds herself in the custody of a succession of law enforcement agencies. These agencies wish to interrogate her about crimes they say she has committed, but she remembers none. She realises the irony of her position: that practically everyone questioning her knows more about her than she herself!
Over the weeks and months that follow, her memory returns in random patches. This is a painful process, but she finds support from a psychiatrist and a lawyer couple. She remembers, among other things, growing up in an orphanage, fleeing the orphanage after a sexual attack, and joining a Maoist group.
She also remembers going to meet her biological father—a rapist and former police officer—to see if he can help. His attitude takes her entirely by surprise, with disastrous consequences. When the bulk of her memory returns, she is thrown into conflict. If she talks to the agencies, she will betray the people who welcomed and supported her during the worst moments of her childhood. If, on the other hand, she withholds what she knows, she will let down the psychiatrist and the lawyer couple who stood by her during her imprisonment and amnesia. She decides not to betray her former group because she cannot betray the people who were with her in her weakest moments. She is instead willing to accept whatever punishment the law holds proper, imprisonment or even death. But life, unpredictable as usual, gets in the way…
The author: Shashi Warrier