A seemingly non-linear narrative set across several timelines, I Named My Sister Silence is more than a bildungsroman. It follows an Adivasi boy, an unnamed narrator, as he grows up and leaves his village at the insistence of his half-sister. The quick pace of the novel compresses the passage of time, and soon the narrator finds himself back in the village, searching for his sister. He attempts to unravel what his sister was up to, trying to understand why she joined the Naxalites and where she has been all this time. The novel doesn’t take on the sanctimonious task of filling the gaps; instead, like its narrator, it poses questions that stir the reader. I Named My Sister Silence makes you tremble with its nonchalance; you feel as though you’re on the tip of a feather, and only later do you notice the paper cut.
