Through the eyes of its feisty young heroine, Malati, the novel recreates one of the most tumultuous periods in modern Indian history—the struggle for Independence.
Author: Lakshmi Puri Format: Paperback Publisher: Aleph Book Company Publication date: January 5, 2024 Pages: Language: English ISBN: 978-8119635863
Swallowing the Sun is an epic feat of remembering and storytelling. Malati’s steeliness and fearlessness enable her to defy the constricting patriarchal traditions of her time and take on all those who try to cow her down. As a young girl, Malati fights and defeats the school bully of her village school in Maharashtra.
From then onwards, backed by her progressive father, she and her sister Kamala push the boundaries constantly. After an eventful girlhood, the sisters become the first women in their family to go to college. They end up in Bombay, a hotbed of political ferment, where, even as she is whirled along by the irresistible current and excitement of the battle for Independence, she negotiates the small and big aspects of everyday life—love, loss, failure, and compromise.
About the Author
Lakshmi Puri, the youngest entrant into the Indian Foreign Service, served as an Indian diplomat and Ambassador for 28 years and 15 years in senior leadership at the United Nations, including as Assistant Secretary-General and founding Deputy Executive Director of UN Women, advancing global agendas on peace, sustainable development and gender equality.
An internationally honoured leader — recipient of the Eleanor Roosevelt Prize for Human Rights, the Novus Award for Championing the SDGs, the Millennium Campus Award and the Global Generation Award — she is a Distinguished Fellow of the Indian Association of International Studies and a Visiting Professor at the South Asian University, New Delhi.
She is the author of the award-winning national bestseller Swallowing the Sun, translated into Marathi and Telugu, with Odiya, Hindi and Assamese editions underway, and recipient of the Kalinga Literature Award, the Delhi Literature Festival Award for Fiction, the REC–VoW Award 2025, the FICCI Special Jury Award 2025 and the Pandit Hari Dutt Sharma Award 2025. Now available internationally through Pippa Rann Books & Media, the novel was launched in Edinburgh with subsequent engagements at King’s College London, the House of Lords and the London School of Economics, and is currently being adapted into a premium multi-season digital series. She was honored by the Massachusetts House of Representatives for her book and contribution to global agenda of women’s empowerment
Her latest book, The Sari Eternal, has also been launched to critical acclaim and within a month is onto its second edition.
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