Amil after Partition
Although Veera Hiranandani’s recently published young adult (YA) novel, Amil and The After, could be viewed as a stand-alone piece of historical fiction, its storyline picks up where her previous book, The Night Diary, ended.
The first book described the perilous journey undertaken by a twelve-year-old Sindhi boy named Amil, along with his twin sister Nisha, their doctor father, their elderly grandmother, and the family’s domestic helper named Kazi, from their ancestral home in Mirpur Khas to Bombay, when India and Pakistan were separated into two countries in 1947. The second book describes the challenges each of them faces in their attempts to adapt to their changed circumstances in Bombay.
Uncertain futures
Their father has only been temporarily employed at the hospital and the stress of facing an uncertain future is palpable in his interactions with his children. Amil has a hard time focusing on schoolwork and fails to make friends in his new school. Even Nisha is withdrawn and barely speaks to anyone. While Amil seeks solace in his sketches and drawings, his sister secretly writes stories in her journal.
Hiranandani’s writing is deft in its handling of adult issues such as psychological trauma of displacement, economic uncertainty, and religious animosity, and bringing it down to the level of young readers (aged 8-12). For Indian American children, the book provides a richly detailed historical foundation upon which they can construct with details drawn from their own life experiences.
Building relationships
The illustrations by Prashant Miranda bring to life Amil’s sketchbook and his handwritten notes to his mother who died in childbirth when he and Nisha were very young. The book ends on a positive note where Amil and Nisha not only build friendships and meaningful relationships, but they also mature and begin to understand the challenges and expectations that the adults in their immediate and extended family have to face.