Sati by Vaibhavi Kerkar

Structured as a countdown, a young Goan writer builds backward through a woman’s life — an arranged marriage, a childhood burn her mother inflicted on purpose “so she wouldn’t have to be afraid anymore” — toward the funeral pyre a widow was once expected to climb onto herself. Kerkar writes fire as inheritance, something girls are taught to carry in their hands long before it’s asked of their whole body.

Content note: depicts self-immolation, violence against women, and sexual assault.

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