16-year-old PULLAMMA is too dark-skinned to have dreams. For this reason, she's obliged her old-fashioned grandmother by not doing well in school. She's also resigned to remaining unwed; with three girls in the family, there's simply not enough dowry to go around.
Then, a wedding alliance arrives for her oldest sister--a fair-skinned beauty. There's great rejoicing in their household. And, why not? The prospective father-in-law is the right-hand man of an important politician. As Pullamma helps ready the house for the bride-viewing--by washing the cow, by stringing flowers along doorways--she prays for the alliance to go through. Then, something happens.
Something so inconceivable, that it will shape Pullamma's future in ways even the local soothsayer couldn't have foretold.
Tell A Thousand Lies is a sometimes sassy, sometimes sad but, ultimately, realistic look at how superstition, and the colour of a girl's skin, rules India's hinterlands.
◆ Shortlisted for the Tibor Jones South Asia Prize
◆ Tell A Thousand Lies is one of our five favourite tales from India. Glam Magazine, UK (June 2014)
◆ Taught in English 479 "Survey of Postcolonial Literature and Theories" at the University of New Mexico, Albuquerque (Spring 2017)
Please note:
- British/Indian spelling--like aluminium and jewellery--is used in this book.
- The story remains the same but the cover is new. This story is now part of a series.
- If you like Shobha Rao, Sejal Badani or Khaled Hosseini, you might enjoy this book.
- Tell A Thousand Lies (Tales From The Deccan Plateau #1) is set in contemporary India. This series may be read in any order.
