Book excerpt: The dramatic second story in the Surya Trilogy by Whitbread award-winning Jamila Gavin, author of Coram Boy. India 1948. "The light has gone out of our world.... Mahatma Gandhi is assassinated. In India, chaos and turmoil reign. In England, Jaspal and Marvinder's father is in prison. Jaspal cannot forgive him, and longs to return to his village in the Punjab where he feels he belongs. Marvinder has found friends, her first love, and her gift as a violinist. But how can she ignore her mother's voice calling her back to India? She is torn between two worlds. A story of thesearch for reconciliation, the sequel to Wheel of Surya is a beautifullycrafted story sets against the backdrop of Indian independence and thePartition of India and Pakistan. No children's books about India conveysthese issues and themes with the effortless ease of Jamila Gavin. Her diversevoice is the perfect introduction to this period of history, for fansof The Bone Sparrow, Morris Gleitzman's Once, and KatherineRundell's The Wolf Wilder.