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From the New York Times bestselling author of Kaikeyi comes an epic and daring novel that imagines an alternate version of India that was never liberated from the British, and a young woman who will change the tides of history. Kalki Divekar grows up a daughter of Kingston—a city the British built on the ashes of Bombay. The older generation, including her father, have been lost to the brutal hunt for rebels. Young men are drafted to fight wars they will never return from. And the people of her city are more interested in fighting each other than facing their true oppressors. When tragedy strikes close to home, Kalki and her group of friends begin to play a dangerous game, obtaining jobs working for the British while secretly planning to destroy the empire from the inside out. They found Kingston's new independence movement, knowing one wrong move means certain death. Facing threats from all quarters, Kalki must decide whether it’s more important to be a hero or to survive. Told as ten moments from Kalki’s life that mirror the Dashavatara, the ten avatars of Vishnu, Ten Incarnations of Rebellion is a sweeping, deeply felt speculative novel of empowerment, friendship, self-determination, and the true meaning of freedom.
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Thank you to #NetGalley and Random House - Ballantine for the ARC!
This alternative history is set in a fictional India that never gained independence from Britain, this story follows Kalki, a young woman who becomes the leader of a rebel group and is told through ten instances in Kalki's life which mirror the Dashavatara, or the ten avatars of Vishnu.
This is a fascinating concept and a thoughtful exploration of what bravery and revolution might look like. It's beautiful and sad and so so moving.
This is the third novel I've read of Vaishnavi Patel's - the other two were both feminist retellings of Hindu tales, so it's a bit of a departure. While I will not claim to be highly knowledgable about the base texts of this period of Indian history, Patel's writing and imagination makes all of these novels incredibly readable. I really loved this and am already anxiously awaiting Patel's next book!