SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2020 BOOKER PRIZE

'Utterly compelling, complex, unflinching realism - sometimes

emotionally wrenching but also cathartic, written with poignancy

and memorability.'

-The 2020 Booker Prize Jury

'Avni Doshi is a writer of surgical precision and sharp intelligence.

This novel of mother-and-daughter resentments and the deep,

intimate cuts of ancient family history gleams like a blade - both

dangerous and beautiful. I loved it.'

-Elizabeth Gilbert, bestselling author of Eat, Pray, Love

'Taut and unsettling, a dark, ferocious novel.'

-Fatima Bhutto, author of The Runaways

Antara has never understood her mother Tara's decisions - walking out on her marriage to follow a guru, living on the streets like a beggar, shacking up with an unknown artist, rebelling against society's expectations ... But when Tara starts losing her memory, Antara searches for a way to make peace with their shared past, a past that haunts them both.

As she relives her childhood in Pune in the 1980s, the time she spent at a Catholic boarding school in the hills of Maharashtra, and her years as a young artist in Bombay, Antara comes up against her own fears and neuroses, realizing she might not be so different from Tara after all.

Burnt Sugar is a journey into shifting memories, altering identities and the subjective nature of truth. Tracing the fragile line between familial devotion and deception, Avni Doshi's mesmerizing first novel will surprise and unsettle you.