Miss Laila, Armed and Dangerous

October 15, 2019
On the same day that Hindu nationalist leader Damodarbhai?who says outrageous things that fan hatred of Muslims?wins election in India, an earthquake levels an old apartment building in Mumbai. One man is still alive in the rubble, and activist Akhila Iyer, who has had medical training, volunteers to tunnel through to the man to treat him. The survivor, who turns out to be an intelligence agent, starts mumbling about a man and a woman, suspected terrorists, setting out by car from Mumbai. The man is a married 35-year-old Hindi who became Muslim for his wife, and the woman is 19-year-old Laila Raza, a Muslim, the delight of her neighborhood and the prime mover of her fatherless family. The pair is pursued by violent state agents, who justify their actions in part by describing the gentle Laila as armed and dangerous. Contemporary India, with its caste system and pervasive sexism, is Joseph's target here, in a novel that is part thriller and part political satire. Another winner from the acclaimed Indian author.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)