Product Description
Burnt Sugar
Author: Avni Doshi
Format: Paperback
Shortlisted for the Booker Prize 2020
Longlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction 2021
Winner of the Sushila Devi Award 2021
New York Times 100 Notable Books of 2021
A searing debut novel about mothers and daughters, obsession and betrayal - for fans of Jenny Offill, Deborah Levy, Rachel Cusk and Diana Evans
'Beautifully written, emotionally wrenching and poignant in equal measure' — The Booker Prize Judges 2020
'An unsettling, sinewy debut, startling in its venom and disarming in its humour from the very first sentence' — Guardian
'I would be lying if I said my mother's misery has never given me pleasure.'
This is a tale of obsession and betrayal. This is a poisoned love story. But not between lovers - between mother and daughter.
Tara and Antara, a woman and her angry shadow. But which one is which?
Sharp as a blade and compulsively readable, Burnt Sugar slowly untangles the knot of memory and rumour that binds two women together, revealing the truth that lies beneath.
'A work of extraordinary insight, courage and sophistication' — Washington Post
'Arresting and fiercely intelligent, disarmingly witty and frank' — Sunday Times
'A sly, slippery, often heartbreaking novel about the role memory plays within families' — Stylist
'Extraordinary... Come for the effortlessly stylish writing, stay for the boiling wrath' — Observer
About the Author
Avni Doshi was born in New Jersey in 1982. Her debut novel, Burnt Sugar, was shortlisted for the Booker Prize 2020, longlisted for the Women's Prize 2021, and won the Sushila Devi Award 2021. It was named a Book of the Year by the Guardian, Economist, Spectator, New York Times Book Review and NPR and has been translated into 26 languages. Avni Doshi's writing has appeared in British Vogue, Granta and the Sunday Times. Her second novel will be published in July 2026; it is called The First House.
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