About this item
Rani Kelkar has never lied to her parents, until she meets Oliver. The same qualities that draw her in--his tattoos, his charisma, his passion for art--make him her mother's worst nightmare.They begin dating in secret, but when Oliver's troubled home life unravels, he starts to ask more of Rani than she knows how to give, desperately trying to fit into her world, no matter how high the cost. When a twist of fate leads Rani from Evanston, Illinois to Pune, India for a summer, she has a reckoning with herself--and what's really brewing beneath the surface of her first love.Winner of SCBWI's Emerging Voices award, Anuradha D. Rajurkar takes an honest look at the ways cultures can clash in an interracial relationship. Braiding together themes of sexuality, artistic expression, and appropriation, she gives voice to a girl claiming ownership of her identity, one shattered stereotype at a time.
About the Author
Anuradha D. Rajurkar is the award-winning author of AMERICAN BETIYA (Knopf) , a 2022 YALSA Best Fiction for Young Adults and a Bank Street Best Book of 2022. Holding two degrees from Northwestern University, Anuradha spends her free time hiking the shores of Lake Michigan, obsessing over her garden, and watching horror flicks with her sons. A lazy knitter, passionate reader, and color-enthusiast, Anuradha lives in Evanston, Illinois with her husband and two sons. Her upcoming book is a young adult gothic thriller entitled TEMPORARY BODIES (Knopf, 2024) . You can find Anuradha on Instagram at and Twitter:
