‘Missy’: Raghav Rao writes convincingly about the pushes and pulls of our closest relationships

Running through Raghav Rao’s debut novel Missy is a sense of foreboding: something bad is about to happen to our characters; you know that the book packs some promise because it is likely you will stick through the three hundred-odd pages to find out if they can weather the storm, as I did.

The story of the protagonist Missy is set up in two parts: first, a brief moment in a past life, and then on to the present, where events unfold to reveal that what was left behind has come to haunt.

A long, unforgiving voyage

As a young girl, a sister’s recommendation takes Savi from living in a convent to being taken on as a maid in a wealthy household; this turn of events bears promise, her employers are kind. Young love, independence, a life of dignity – as soon as all begins to seem within reach, tragedy strikes one night. An accident so unforgiving that it demands total abandonment of this fertile land of possibility, to go far enough that distance eclipses familiarity.

But this voyage is long and unforgiving: it leaves no choice but to be born anew. Decades later, in Chicago, we meet Missy at the Dancing Shiva Driving School, where she...

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