Hey, everyone, and welcome to a book review!
I haven't done one of these in a while, but I've been talking about books, you know that.
So today, to cap off 2018 in a really nice way, I want to talk about my favorite book
of this year, that I read this year, that came out this year, it's just, it's the best
book.
And it is...The Night Diary by Veera Hiranandi.
It's so good.
So first, a little summary, this book is about a twelve-year-old girl who lives in what has
just now become Pakistan and she, having a Hindu father, is forced to move with her twin
brother and grandmother, to what is now India.
So a little history lesson for you, in 1947, the British left India, stopped colonizing
it, peaced out, and then that day, India became independent, and the next day, Pakistan became
its own country, and then, there was a lot of bad.
So they wanted India to be a primarily Hindu country and Pakistan to be a primarily Muslim
country, and everyone was forced to migrate from their homes, from their ancestral homes
in some cases, to entirely new places where they knew no one.
And in that move, there was a lot of violence, a lot of riots, just a lot of riots.
And that is what they call Partition.
It was not a good time.
My grandparents lived through it.
I'm lucky that they lived through it, otherwise I wouldn't be around today.
And this is about a twelve-year-old girl who had to as well.
Now, this is a work of fiction, I should say that.
This is historical fiction - it takes place during that time, the events that happened
are real, but the people in the book are fiction.
So one of the things I really love about this book is the way it's formatted.
So Nisha, the 12-year-old girl in question, has just turned twelve.
She has a twin brother, a single father, a grandmother, and a servant, and she's just
living her life.
And every night she writes in her diary, which is why it's called The Night Diary, but she
is actually writing to her mother, who has passed away.
She passed away in childbirth, so her and her brother's birthday is their mother's death
anniversary as well.
Nisha really feels the loss of her mother, despite the fact that she never knew her,
and is compelled to write to her every single day and try to understand her mother, herself,
and the world around her by writing these letters.
So because it is a diary, and such a personal diary, you really get to know the main character
so well and you get to know her voice and her understanding of the world and misunderstanding
of the world, because a lot of this has to do with confusing politics that would go over
anyone's head, much less a twelve-year-old's.
Nisha is really the right way to tell this specific story.
Sometimes I feel like in stories, a book is better told by a different narrator, like
I think Hermione would have been a far more interesting story than Harry's for instance.
But this doesn't have that problem at all.
It's such a good voice for this story.
So the reason why it's so important that Nisha is writing to her mother specifically is that
her mother was a Muslim, and she is half Muslim, but her father is Hindu.
So she is being torn away from a place that now represents her mother's identity, and
is going to a place that she doesn't know.
That does represent half of her identity as well, but it's an identity that's already
a part of her.
She grew up with her father, her father and her father's mother raised her, like, she
knows her Hindu past very well, and this is one of the few things that connects her to
her mother and she's being ripped away from that.
As you can see by the cover.
It's such a well-done cover by the way.
Just take a moment to appreciate it.
Look, it's shiny!
It's got shiny bits!
It's a really unique situation that Veera Hiranandi puts her characters in, which is
that their mother was from this place and half of her identity is from one place and
the other half is part of the other and in the middle, there's all this violence going
on and they have to be in hiding, and their starving, and can't find food as they try
to migrate from what is now Pakistan to what is now India.
I'm not going to say it's an easy read or a light read or a fun read, because it's not.
But it's a necessary book to read.
So many people I know didn't know that this is a thing that happened.
They had no idea.
They know that it the 1940s WWII happened, and suddenly all of these countries became
independent because England had no money anymore and no way to negotiate.
And people also don't realize that Indians and colonized people actually fought in world
wars, which is why it's called world war.
But the British had no ground to stand on, which is why so many countries were able to
become independent in the late 1940s and early 1950s.
But what people don't realize is what came with that wonderful independence is a lot
of scary times for a lot of people.
It's not something other people think about.
I think about it occasionally, because it's a part of my identity and my history, my grandparents
and parents are from India - I have roots there, but it's not something I think about
every day, even.
But this makes you think about it from a day-by-day perspective.
Like, this is something that happened to someone every single day of their life.
They lost education because of it, they lost money, they lost food, they became malnourished
and had to hide from the people who were trying to kill them, and this really brings to life
things that aren't really talked about, even in Indian culture.
It's necessary, is all I'm gonna say.
For south asians and non-south asians alike, it's a necessary book.
However just because it's a difficult book to read and because it makes you sad, doesn't
mean it's not got some really nice aspects to it.
One thing that was really amazing to see was the relationship between Nisha and Kazi, who
is the Muslim servant that they had who cooked for them.
I would call him a Maharaj, if you guys know what that means in the context.
Brown people who know what I'm talking about, know what I'm talking about.
But like, Kazi is the one who cooked for them and Nisha learned so much from him and they
got separated because Kazi is Muslim and had to stay while Nisha and her family had to
go because religion and politics and bad things.
But, it was really great to see their relationship at the beginning and how Kazi knew her mom,
so it was really nice to see their relationship and how Nisha learned how to cook from him
and learn all of these wonderful things from him, and also got some of her mother's love
from him.
And it was really beautiful to see that relationship develop.
Another one of my favorite characters was the brother, Amil, who would - I would say,
in modern times, would be diagnosed with ADHD, but that's also, I have ADHD so like take
that with a grain of salt, but Nisha is a smart, strong-willed character.
She is the type of girl who'd get straight-As in school and also cooks and she's very...she
likes to do things and be active, and Amil is more of the artist type who is just, he
wants to sing and draw and doesn't really understand numbers and everything gets jumbled
up in his head and he can't pay attention for the life of him, and has learning difficulties.
And it was - and obviously none of it is talked about the way it's talked about in modern
times, and their father is not nice to Amil because of the way he performs in school and
the way other kids treat him is awful, but it was really kind of nice to see that represented
in a boy - like a soft, artistic boy character, because you don't get that enough.
And it's also really nice to see Amil and their father's relationship develop as the
story goes on.
Because they're all they've got.
They don't have a home anymore, they don't have anything anymore.
They are displaced refugees who have to stick together, and they kind of overcome those
differences through the book.
And it's also so clear that their father is also terrified but is doing his best to be
strong for these two children who don't quite understand what's going on.
Like, their father is a doctor who has just lost his entire business of saving lives.
But he still manages to help a few people along the way, which is wonderful to see.
But he's just trying to keep it all together, and his mother is with them, and is sick and
her legs don't work, and everyone's just so persistent and determined to get through everything
alive and together.
And it's just so beautiful to see.
And all of the characters are so different.
Like, you've got Nisha, the type-A but girly and always wants to make friends, smart girl,
then you've got the father who is a little more stoic, but clearly cares so much about
his children and doesn't know how how to express it.
And then you've got Amil who is artistic and clever in his own way, but it's not quite
understood by everyone else, and then you've got the grandmother who's just a trooper and
amazing and also very smart and wonderful.
And, yeah.
I just love every character in this book.
I just love them all so much and they're all so different.
And you've gotta read this book.
Guys, I don't know if I've got this across to you yet, but you've gotta read this book.
The only thing I would say I didn't like about this book, which isn't even a complaint, is
that the voice does read a little more childish than twelve sometimes.
But then I remember that this is 1947 and Nisha's not as educated as she wants to be
and she's very clear about that - that she's not as educated as she wants to be.
And she is suffering and is still able to make amazing observations in very simple language.
I think I said this a few years ago about A Time to Dance, which also takes place in
South Asia - in South India, that one - but this feels almost translated.
Like I'm reading a translated text from Urdu, I guess, to English, where the language feels
simpler but in a good way, because all it's doing is getting every point across, but it
still has some beautiful language in it.
So I think I've raved for long enough about this book.
If you don't want to read this book yet, you're wrong.
You have to read this book.
I don't care.
It's amazing.
You have to read it.
And I am just going to end this video by reading aloud one of my favorite passages from the
book.
It's right in the middle of the book.
It's on page 131 if you have this copy, which everyone should - it's only out in hardcover
right now.
And this is just such a beautiful moment between a brother and a sister.
"I matched my pace with Amil exactly as I could, making sure our feet hit and left the
ground at the exact same time.
I made it a game and the sound of our footfalls became a beat to a song I heard in my head.
It was an old song I heard, a song that Dadi used to sing to us before bed when we were
little.
Amil used to sing with Dadi, and Dadi would shush him and tell him he wouldn't fall asleep
if he sang with her.
I remember wishing he would be quiet, too.
I just wanted to hear Dadi's voice.
Sometimes I would close my eyes and pretend it was you singing to us, Mama.
But he would stop only for a few seconds and then start up again.
I realized I haven't heard Amil sing in a long time.
What I would do to hear him sing now.
Love, Nisha."
Yeah, that is a kind of sad but beautiful note to end on, which is this book.
Kind of sad - pretty sad - but beautiful.
I will see you guys next time, and I will see you when you have read this book.
Bye!
Special thanks to Jay Patel and John E. Norem for being my Patrons.
If you would like to support my video work, head on over to my Patreon and check out the
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