When a British soldier crushes his skull, so severely damaging his brain that he can no longer feed himself, she is devasted. Vidya idolizes her father, a freedom fighter and follower of Gandhi, not so much because of his politics but because he is one of the few members of her family who does not think she is unladylike and doomed to be an old maid. Climbing the Stairs is a powerful story about love and loss set against a fascinating historical backdrop. Padma Venkatraman's debut novel poignantly shows a girl struggling to find her place in a mixedup world. But when Vidya's brother decides to fight with the hated British against the Nazis, and when Raman proposes marriage too soon, Vidya must question all she has believed in. There she meets Raman, a young man also living in the house who relishes her intellectual curiosity. Vidya's only refuge becomes her grandfather's upstairs library, which is forbidden to women. But when her forward-thinking father is beaten senseless by the British police, she is forced to live with her grandfather's large traditional family, where the women live apart from the men and are meant to be married off as soon as possible. A remarkable debut novel set in India that shows one girl's struggle for independence.ĭuring World War II and the last days of British occupation in India, fifteen-year-old Vidya dreams of attending college.
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