Cynthia Greenwood

Riding in her in-laws' bridal cart after her inauspicious wedding, young Meera Sawhney dreams about Hindu brides who take the same kind of journey in the movies. Then reality gives her a harsh jolt:

"It was as if a sudden, terrifying realization had burned right through the film in the projector. The realization that I wasn't in a movie, that I was no longer playacting. That I was an adult now, and this was my life."

Manil Suri's The Age of Shiva chronicles a young Hindu woman's ill-fated marriage to an amateur singer destined for failure.

Enriched by myth and political turmoil, this odyssey of marriage and motherhood is as bittersweet as a Cinderella tale. Amid India's cultural unrest under Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, the novel traces how India's rigid patriarchy shackled women.

The Age of Shiva is Suri's first novel since 2001's award-winning The Death of Vishnu. This new book won't disappoint.

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