House of Caravans

August 1, 2023
One family feels the ripple effects of Partition for generations after India and Pakistan are cleaved in 1947. Reminiscent of Zadie Smith's White Teeth in its structure and themes, Suneja's debut novel splits its pages between two politically turbulent eras. One narrative thread follows Barre Nanu and Chhote Nanu, a pair of Hindu brothers, as they deal with the consequences of a misguided bomb plot and an illicit romance in Lahore amid the sunset of the British Empire. With World War II raging, many Indians have begun to chafe against colonial rule, Chhote Nanu among them. His revolutionary aspirations are complicated by his love for the beautiful Nigar Jaan, a Muslim sex worker of mixed Indian and English heritage, but he still follows through on an attempt to assassinate a cruel police superintendent. Backfiring, the scheme fails to kill the superintendent and sends Chhote Nanu to jail for nearly two and a half years. Following his release in 1946, Partition plunges the region into chaos and turns Lahore into a Pakistani territory, stranding Barre Nanu and Chhote Nanu on the wrong side of the border. Witnessing horrors as violence against Hindus intensifies, they fight to escape a country they can no longer call their own. Six decades after Chhote Nanu's imprisonment began in 1943, New York City graduate student Karan Khatri returns to his hometown, the Indian city of Kanpur, for the first time in six years after his sister sends word that Barre Nanu, their grandfather, has died. In the wake of 9/11, long-standing tensions between Hindus and Muslims have flared up in the United States, reminding Karan and his friends that they are welcome in some worlds but not in others. In addition to paying his respects to Barre Nanu, Karan has another reason for making the trip to Kanpur: He wants to know more about his parentage. While his mother has always told him that he and his sister were fathered by a Muslim man and a Hindu man, respectively, she has disclosed few other details, seemingly reluctant to do so. Family secrets come to the fore and old wounds reopen as Karan and his sister search for answers. A moving evocation of life before, during, and after Partition and the past's immeasurable impact on the present.

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August 7, 2023
Suneja’s debut interrogates the corrosive legacy of colonialism by exploring fractured familial bonds following the 1947 Partition of India. The novel traverses two timelines, beginning in 2002 when Karan Khatri joins his half sister, Ila, in their childhood home in Kanpur, where their grandfather, Barre Nanu, has died. Karan and Ila are determined to find answers about their respective fathers and the rift between their mother and their granduncle, Chhote Nanu, who is bitter and aloof, nursing wounds that can be traced to 1943 Lahore. In this secondary timeline, Chhote Nanu is imprisoned for attempting to assassinate the British superintendent of police. In 1946, as India works to supplant colonial rule, Chhote Nanu is released. Suneja skillfully depicts the growing violence and religious fascism left in the wake of the British colonizers, which ultimately cost Chhote Nanu his wife and unborn child and keeps him away from his brother. In August 1947, the brothers reunite en route to newly partitioned India, but amid the challenging mass migration, their reunion is brief. Suneja weaves a tale that spans generations, centering on the trauma of the Partition and its rippling effects on a family trying to find its way back to one another. This is a promising debut. Agent: Sorche Fairbank, Fairbank Literary.

December 22, 2023

DEBUT Toggling between India circa 1947 and 2002, Suneja's evocative debut explores the violence wrought by the 1947 Partition. Two Hindu brothers, Barre Nanu and Chhote Nanu, come into adulthood in Lahore not long before the end of British colonial rule. Chhote has fallen in love not only with the idealism of an independent India but also with Nigar Jaan, an Anglo Indian Muslim sex worker. Chhote's misguided attempt to kill Nigar's British lover, a ruthless police superintendent, sets into motion a series of consequences that extend into the future. In 2002, Barre Nanu's grandson Karan leaves the United States and returns to the family's home in Kanpur to seek answers from his mother about his biological family. Though he has enlisted the support of his half-sister Ila, their mother steadfastly refuses to reveal their fathers' identities, save that one is Hindu and the other Muslim. Estrangement from their great uncle Chhote following their grandfather Bare Nau's death also challenges familial cohesion. Suneja's depiction of the cruel, misogynistic practices tearing at the fabric of families is especially moving. VERDICT An auspicious debut, recommended for readers seeking a bittersweet, sweeping saga exploring the chaos and divisiveness brought forth by Partition.--Faye A. Chadwell

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