Swallowing the Sun is many things. An ode to freedom fighters, glimpses of whose hard-fought victories would bring to younger readers born long after the independence movement the cost of resistance. A potboiler with breathless romances and swashbuckling encounters with fearsome Chambal Valley dacoits. A feminist anthem, depicting strength and courage in its female characters, despite opposition and setbacks typical of the early 20th century.
Swallowing the Sun (Pippa Ran Books 2026; first published in India in 2024 by Aleph Book Company) is a debut novel by Lakshmi Murdeshwar Puri, formerly a diplomat with the Indian Foreign Service and more recently United Nations Assistant Secretary-General. A historian with a degree from Delhi University, the author sets her novel in the early 1900’s, in the time of India’s struggle for independence from British colonizers.
Malati and her older sister Kamala are born in pre-Independence India in a village in Maharashtra to Madhav Rao, a progressive father and firm believer in educating girls (unusual for that time), and Pratibha, a more conventional mother. Starting from her girlhood pluck in standing up to a schoolyard bully, Malati charts her own path. With her sister by her side and the full support of her father, she navigates boarding school and an ashram, where the sisters learn English. Their older sister Surekha accepts a marriage proposal from a wealthy older man, Vilas Rao, the finance minister in a Maharaja’s court, to become his second wife. Malati and Kamala are received with warmth and affection by Surekha’s new family as they navigate their sister’s affluent new surroundings with wide-eyed wonder. Vilas Rao’s first wife, Savitri, called Maa Saheb, has spiritual powers that some refer to as madness, yet her occasional prophecies, delivered in a trance, are feared by all. She and her daughter Sarala are cared for well by Vilas Rao, and the girls come to know them well.
After completing school and passing their Intermediate exams, Malati and Kamala gain admission to Elphinstone College in Bombay, where young men and romantic interests enter the picture. Guru, Shyam and Vivek join the group along with Chandra, an old friend from their boarding school. Theatre, music and an increasing political awareness broaden their horizons and lead to their involvement in India’s strengthening Independence movement. Protests against the 1928 Simon Commission and inspiring encounters with Mahatma Gandhi and Annie Besant fire up their spirits, even as they navigate their education and developments in their personal life: friendships, romance, love.
Lest you think these are the only characters and plot lines in this book, let me hasten to add that there are a great many more, with several parallel and tangential plot lines. Despite this, the author drives the narrative forward with impressive coherence, taking all the characters along without leaving any loose ends.
Passages of lyrical beauty punctuate the narrative. The descriptions of individuals, of the surroundings, of nature are detailed and vivid, such as the description of Surekha as a bride “turning her from a farmer’s daughter into a Bride Goddess of the Manor.” Sarala, who is homeschooled, envies Malati and Kamala’s education in a school with other students, musing that “there is something to be said for being pebbles in a running stream, rubbing against each other and being smoothened by the friction.”
Yet, the writing is occasionally overwrought, with lots of Mills & Boon-esque descriptions of hot-blooded romance. On occasion, the voice seems uncharacteristic. For example, Malati and Kamala have spent only a short time at their boarding school and have barely had time to learn English before they are spouting lines from rather advanced literary works: Shakespeare, philosophy.
In many instances, the Western writers they quote and intellectual statements they make would be more suited to an older, more cosmopolitan person. As the story progresses, barely any time seems to elapse between their timid arrival in Bombay from the ashram and their energetically playing highly competitive tennis. The narrative pendulum swings unevenly between the simple, naïve life of a villager and the worldly ways of a lifelong urban sophisticate. Somehow it doesn’t gel in text.
Even so, it is a page-turner and a good summer read reminiscent of Alka Joshi’s The Henna Artist, with a spirited young female protagonist and evocative imagery. Given the rich descriptions in Swallowing the Sun, I felt the story would translate well to the screen. And sure enough, in 2025, Mumbai-based Abundantia Entertainment announced an adaptation of the book into a series. The Henna Artist trilogy was commissioned in 2021 for a Netflix series starring Freida Pinto. But five years have gone by, and there hasn’t been an update. Let’s hope for a speedier screen adaptation for Swallowing the Sun.
At its heart, Puri’s novel is a paean to those who follow their dreams with courage and conviction, even if the path is not easy. The title, Swallowing the Sun, is from a Marathi devotional poem by Muktabai and is about an ant who flies up and swallows the sun. In the words of the author in a 2025 NDTV interview, it is an exhortation to “dare to dream, break boundaries, attain the unattainable.”
Swallowing the Sun
Lakshmi Murdeshwar Puri
Original publication in India/ South Asia by Aleph Book Co. (New Delhi, India): January 2024
Published by Pippa Rann Books & Media, U.K. 8PDFRV
Date of publication in Canada and the USA: July the 24th, 2026
**International** edition – i.e., outside South Asia, in the Rest of the World (UK/ Europe/ Canada/ USA/ Australia)
ISBN: 978-1-913738-95-2)
