Hot Water - Бхавіка Говіл

It has always been Mira, Ma and Ashu. The three of them, as they sing Simon & Garfunkel in Ma's sun-yellow car, watch TV on the sofa and holiday on the mango farm, are bound firmly together. Yet, beneath this tale of proximity, lurks another story of a family in hot water.

Fourteen-year-old Ashu and Ma both harbour secrets, the true sign of adulthood for nine-year-old Mira, even as she is flung into one huge secret of her own. All of them confront questions that have no neat answers. Where is Ma's husband, for instance? Who does Ashu pine for? Why is Mira treated differently than Ashu?

An achingly beautiful novel set over one long, hot summer where the truth comes tumbling out and the world Ma, Mira and Ashu have cobbled together threatens to give way.