The Spectacular Miss

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What to expect

I learned that I am, despite my early years spent as a swaggering boy, at heart just a middle-class, hardworking, risk-averse, uncreative, straitlaced, routine-obsessed conformist. In case I forgot to mention it, I’m also prudish to the point of being puritanical.

But at eight, Nira had only one overpowering wish—to pee standing up like a boy. In fact, to be a boy.

Join Nira as she steps into her brother’s clothes and becomes the self-appointed Al Capone-esque gang leader of the neighborhood boys. Her oddball yet madly loving family shapes her personality, and a poignant relationship with her brother’s best friend shapes her life.

She uses uninhibited candor to detail her coming-of-age journey from Calcutta to London, from tomboy to reluctant woman-in-progress … always trying to fit in, but always failing. She’s a-laugh-a-minute, and yet she breaks your heart with her subconscious, percussive yearning for the one person who is always too old, too far, too married to be hers.

Critics Review

“Gripping and hilarious.”

Hindustan Times

“A funny, surprising, all-around delightful novel that heralds a fine new literary talent in India.”

Los Angeles Times

“Sonia Bahl writes with a spring in her style, a whistle in her words…A book that smiles at you. Wistfully.”

Swapan Seth, author of This is All I Have to Say

“A spectacular coming-of-age story…Spunky, funny, and will surely tug at your heart.”

Vikas Bahl, award-winning director

“Madcap energy that leaps off the page, and a flair for the language that is irresistible…What a treat this is.”

Akshat Verma, award-winning screenwriter

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