Pervez: A Novel

by Meher Pestonji

English 1 edition

When her marriage falls apart, Pervez, a young Parsi woman belonging to an affluent family, returns to Mumbai. As she begins to pick up the pieces of her old life, attending social gatherings and deciding on future plans, she is drawn into the activist movement in the city. In the months preceding the demolition of the Babri Masjid, with the mandir-masjid debate heating up around her, Pervez finds herself confronting fundamental beliefs regarding social privilege, justice, religion and secularism. Her outrage at the demolition and the subsequent violence that rips through the city—and the country—is tempered by a survival instinct that propels her into action and eventual catharsis. Visceral and thought-provoking, Meher Pestonji’s brilliant novel, first published in 2003, compels us to shake off our complacency and take a hard look at the world around us.