Shortlisted for the 2020 Booker Prize and one of NPR’s Best Books of 2020, Burnt Sugar looks at the “complex and unusual mother-daughter relationship with honest, unflinching realism – sometimes emotionally wrenching but also cathartic, written with poignancy and memorability.” Set in India, it is a story about mothers and daughters, obsession and betrayal.

Speaking from Dubai, author Avni Doshi will be in conversation with Christina Baker Kline, #1 New York Times bestselling author of eight novels.

This is a free talk, held live online via Crowdcast; register and view here.

All authors appear for free and the best way to thank and support them is by buying their books! Avni’s and Christina’s books are available from Festival partner Watchung Booksellers here.

Avni Doshi was born in New Jersey and received her BA in art history from Barnard College and her MA in history of art at University College, London. While working as an art writer and curator in India, Avni began writing fiction. Her debut novel, Burnt Sugar, was shortlisted for the 2020 Booker Prize in Fiction. Avni lives in Dubai with her family.

Christina Baker Kline is the bestselling author of eight novels, including The Exiles, Orphan Train, and A Piece of the World. Her novels have received the New England Prize for Fiction, the Maine Literary Award, and a Barnes & Noble Discover Award, among other prizes.

This event is part of Succeed2gether’s Montclair Literary Festival’s special series of author events, Global Voices. See all of the talks here.

Any proceeds from the festival benefit parent organization, Montclair-based non-profit Succeed2gether, which offers after-school one-on-one tutoring and enrichment classes with the aim of closing the education and opportunity gaps in Essex County, NJ. You can read more about Succeed2gether and the festival at www.succeed2gether.org.