A review by jwinchell
The Night Diary by Veera Hiranandani

5.0

Can an epistolary be a journal written as letters to the main character’s deceased mother? I think it can, and Hiranandani has pulled off something beautiful and charming and heartbreaking and eye opening. In mid 1947 India, Nisha and her twin brother Amil are learning that Partition is happening and that because they are Hindu, they will have to leave their home in what is now considered Muslim Pakistan. For weeks they are refugees, surviving the unimaginable. Nisha is so quiet and so sensitive and introspective; the format of the book is the perfect vehicle for her expression. The relationships are beautifully drawn. The history is a smart vehicle; I loved the glossary and the author’s acknowledgements of her family who lived through this dramatic and fractious time.