New Delhi, Oct 25 (PTI) Hyderabad-based Richa Sharma's debut novel "Finding Home Again: Our Quest to Belong" addresses the key issue of displacement and how urban solitude turns into silent screams as lives of those shifting cities rotate between their physical homes and those of their dreams.
The book, published by Nu Voice Press, begins with a train accident in flood-ravaged Assam, disrupting the lives of Mridula, Maya, and Kranti. Amid the search for their loved ones in the wreckage, repressed shadows come to the fore.
Sharma, born and raised in Arunachal Pradesh, has also lived in various cities across India. Having lived a life of constant movement, she has drawn upon her experience of displacement.
Her innumerable train journeys and first-hand experience of monsoon-led floods inspired her to write "Finding Home Again".
Through her characters, Sharma shows how moving to a new place can lead to substantial practical and psychological consequences.
The characters, straining to break free from the burden of childhood and shifting homelands, try to withstand the awareness that change often brings. New relationships seem to develop among the three characters, post the train accident.