About the Book AN INTIMATE AND REMARKABLE STORY OF ONE WOMAN'S EXPERIENCE OF WAR. It is December 1941. Japan has just bombed Pearl Harbor. After a series of victories in Hong Kong, Malaya and Singapore, the Japanese are closing in on India. And the British colony must meet the demands of the war outside its borders, even as the Independence movement gathers steam within. That's when Katherine Riddle comes home to Pipli with bruised dreams and a broken heart. Fed on gossip fuelled by rumours, the little railway colony is on edge. Nobody is immune-not even her stoic father, Terrence. Nor the always placid Ayah. And especially not the tongue-tied Indian assistant stationmaster. Set in the last years of the British Raj, this is an unusual novel about being torn between two worlds. About the Author Daman Singh is the author of two previous novels: Nine by Nine and The Sacred Grove. She has also written three works of non-fiction: The Last Frontier: People and Forests in Mizoram (1996), Strictly Personal (2014), a memoir of her parents Manmohan Singh and Gursharan Kaur, and Asylum: The Battle for Mental Healthcare in India (2021). She lives in Delhi with her husband and dog.