Intelligent, chilling, and deeply moving, Leila shows us a future that it both highly imaginative and all too believable. (Kamila Shamsie, author of HOME FIRE)Leila does for the barbarity of contemporary Indian nationalism what The Handmaid's Tale did for the yoke of patriarchy. It is urgent, gripping, topical, disturbing, and announces a talent we'll be talking about for years to come. (Neel Mukherjee, author of THE LIVES OF OTHERS)Leila is the all-too-possible chilling portrayal of a society that's ruled by power, money, tribalism and religion . . .[and] resonates on so many current political levels it's uncanny. (Emerald Street)Timely and memorable. (Scotland on Sunday)

Shalini will never forget her daughter Leila's third birthday party: it was the last time she saw her alive.

Sixteen years have passed and Shalini's life is unrecognizable. Her husband gone: beaten and dragged from their home the night Leila disappeared. Shalini, once privileged, is now disgraced. She trawls the streets desperate to discover where Leila now lives - if she lives at all.

In this repressive state, where tradition and purity are valued above all, those outside the city walls - forced to live in filth and oppressive heat - are less than nothing. But can Shalini find a way back in? Will she see Leila again?