Ice-Candy Man by Bapsi Sidhwa

Description

INCLUDED IN THE BBC 100 NOVELS THAT SHAPED OUR WORLD

There is much disturbing talk. India is going to be broken. Can one break a country? And what happens if they break it where our house is? Eight-year-old Lenny is crippled by polio but inquisitive and spirited. She spends her days in the park with her beloved Ayah, surrounded by a plethora of other park-goers: there s the Sikh zoo-keeper, the Pathan, strong Imman Din, and Ice-Candy Man, peddling popsicles and political unrest. But as British rule in India draws to a close, whispers of Partition reach the affluent fringes of Lahore. Sectarian violence soon escalates and riots break out amongst the city’s once harmonious people. Amidst the chaos, Lenny’s Ayah is abducted and her idyll shatters. Her innocence, exuberant humour, and heart-wrenching insight lead us through these momentous events, revealing the fragile unity of a nation as it teeters on the cusp of historic change.

Author Biography

Born in Karachi and brought up in Lahore, Bapsi Sidhwa, a graduate of Kinnaird College for Women, now lives in Houston. Sidhwa held a Bunting Fellowship at Radcliffe, and received the prestigious Lila Wallace Readers Digest Writers Award. She has taught at Columbia University, the University of Houston, Mount Holyoke College and Southampton University. She has been awarded the Sitara-i-Imtiaz, Pakistan’s highest national honour in the arts.