Burnt Sugar

Shortlisted for the Booker Prize 2020

Avni Doshi author

Format:Paperback

Publisher:Penguin Books Ltd

Published:3rd Jun '21

Should be back in stock very soon

Burnt Sugar cover


SHORTLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE 2020

LONGLISTED FOR THE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION 2021

WINNER OF THE SUSHILA DEVI AWARD 2021

NEW YORK TIMES 100 NOTABLE BOOKS OF 2021

A searing debut novel about mothers and daughters, obsession and betrayal - for fans of Jenny Offill, Deborah Levy, Rachel Cusk and Diana Evans

'Beautifully written, emotionally wrenching and poignant in equal measure' The Booker Prize Judges 2020

'An unsettling, sinewy debut, startling in its venom and disarming in its humour from the very first sentence' Guardian

'I would be lying if I said my mother's misery has never given me pleasure.'

This is a tale of obsession and betrayal. This is a poisoned love story. But not between lovers - between mother and daughter.

Tara and Antara, a woman and her angry shadow. But which one is which?

Sharp as a blade and compulsively readable, Burnt Sugar slowly untangles the knot of memory and rumour that binds two women together, revealing the truth that lies beneath.

'A work of extraordinary insight, courage and sophistication' Washington Post

'Arresting and fiercely intelligent, disarmingly witty and frank' Sunday Times


'A sly, slippery, often heartbreaking novel about the role memory plays within families' Stylist

'Extraordinary... Come for the effortlessly stylish writing, stay for the boiling wrath' Observer

An unsettling, sinewy debut, startling in its venom and disarming in its humour from the very first sentence
Extraordinary. Exquisitely written, painfully exhilarating, impossible to put down... An elegant family story that sizzles with hatred... Come for the effortlessly stylish writing, stay for the boiling wrath * Observer *
Arresting and fiercely intelligent, disarmingly witty and frank... Horror stories from the past seep into the present, as Doshi builds her portrait of a fractured mother-daughter relationship * Sunday Times *
A masterclass. Crisp, engaging, perfectly tragic in the way that families often tend to be... Doshi writes sharply, in no-nonsense prose, not a single sentence in the book can be omitted... Avni Doshi is a force to watch out for in the literary world * Scroll *
A corrosive, compulsive debut * Sunday Telegraph (five stars) *
Subtle, intelligent, thrilling, visceral
This caustic tale of a destructive mother-daughter bond is as potent as its title might suggest... It bristles with sharp, chilly aphorisms... Doshi's visceral debut is a no-holds-barred excavation of how hate can both poison and sustain * Daily Mail *
Scouringly brilliant, a blazing debut that sticks in the mind like caramel blackened to the bottom of a pan... Doshi draws our relationships, both with the truth and with other people, with words that glitter sharp as shards of broken mirror * Buro. *
When does self-determination become selfishness? What can you learn from a bad mother? ...Sorrowful, sceptical and electrifyingly truthful about mothers and daughters -- Shahidha Bari * Guardian *
A sly, slippery, often heartbreaking novel about the role memory plays within families * Stylist *

ISBN: 9780241989142

Dimensions: 198mm x 129mm x 15mm

Weight: 170g

240 pages