The missing queen

Part political thriller and part reimagining of the Ramayana, Samhita Arni’s debut novel is a brilliant critique of the political and media landscapes in modern India. Here, a young investigative journalist retraces Sita’s steps in the years after she was banished from Ayodhya by her husband.

But in the course of her search, she runs afoul of the sacred, ancient city’s all-powerful secret police and its mysterious head, the Washerman. Forced to flee, the journalist makes her way through a war-devastated land in search of answers and the missing queen.

Arni’s first book, The Mahabharata: A Child’s View, written when she was just eight years old, was translated into seven languages and has sold more than fifty thousand copies. Her second, a graphic rendering of Sita’s Ramayana, was a New York Times bestseller. A dark satire, The Missing Queen marks the triumphant return of a writer with fans around the world.