Early Reviewers Monisha Raman

A queen in the mid-sixteenth century who has to save her lineage from the enemies, a naive seventeen-year-old, wedded to a middle-aged farmer who battles her intense attraction towards another woman, a lonely housewife in a failing marriage to an ambitious businessman who is haunted by memories of her affectionate lover—what do these women have in common?

The Betta is a fictitious mountain district in South India. The people residing here are isolated. What happens when a group of strangers find their way into the heart of the hills?

In these interconnected stories, each woman inherits a culture in crisis from those who came before her. The voices of these women from five different centuries stand testament to the journey of one community.

As time progresses, the façade of the hills change and people are hauled into this cycle. All the while the mountains stand witness to the metamorphosis, resistance, slander, tyranny and courage.