The Night Diary

Starred review from January 15, 2018
After introverted Nisha receives a diary for her 12th birthday, she begins to find her voice as she documents her family’s upheaval amid the 1947 Partition of India. Nisha’s journal entries, which are addressed to her deceased mother, take on new urgency as she witnesses India being “split in half like a log” along religious lines after gaining independence from Britain. As the daughter of a Hindu father and a Muslim mother, Nisha questions which side of the Indian-Pakistani border to call her own. But when her family is no longer safe in their home in the city of Mirpur Khas (which became part of Pakistan), they set out for “the new India.” Hiranandani (The Whole Story of Half a Girl) places Nisha’s coming of age against the violent birth of a nation. The diary format gives her story striking intimacy and immediacy, serving as a window into a fraught historical moment as Nisha grapples with issues of identity and the search for a home that remain quite timely. Ages 8–12. Agent: Sara Crowe, Pippin Properties.

In 1947, political and religious upheaval divided India. Millions of Hindus, Muslims, and Sikhs crossed the border into what is now Pakistan, fleeing sectarian violence. Narrator Priya Ayyar's Indian accent adds authenticity to this historical story in which Nisha and her Hindu family must leave their home in Pakistan due to the unrest. Ayyar's modulation changes little but fits the reticent Nisha, a girl who struggles with speaking aloud and writes in her diary to her late mother, who was Muslim. However, when the family witnesses atrocities and Nisha reveals her horror in her diary, Ayyar emotes true distress. Ayyar's voice gains some cheerfulness when Nisha's brother recovers from near death and when she makes a Muslim friend while in hiding. A haunting story of a turbulent time. L.T. � AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine