Book review of Amil and the After by Veera Hiranandani

What occurs to a household after a harmful, life-changing and historic journey? That’s the focus of Veera Hiranandani’s fantastic Amil and the After, which follows 12-year-old Amil and his household, who, throughout the Partition of India in 1948, have simply migrated to Bombay from what would turn into Pakistan. It’s a worthy companion novel to Hiranandani’s Newbery Honoree The Night Diary, which tells the story of that journey by way of the perspective of Amil’s twin sister, Nisha.

Amil and Nisha’s Hindu father tells them, “Everything is broken. Pakistan and the new India are like two eggs sitting on a ledge, having no idea what they’re going to grow up to be.” Similarly, his youngsters are additionally in a precarious state earlier than transformation. While Nisha prospers on schoolwork and writing, Amil is dyslexic and loves to attract. Amil begins making a sequence of drawings about their new life as a approach of honoring their Muslim mom, who died in childbirth. 

“I thought we were over the bad stuff here in Bombay,” Amil confesses. “We’re safe and getting back to a normal life, I guess, but I’m still sad a lot of the time.” Everyone is looking for their approach, from their father to their homesick grandmother and Kazi, their beloved Muslim prepare dinner. Nisha is slowly rising from selective mutism, and each Amil and Nisha assist one another by way of occasional panic assaults stemming from their harrowing escape. Hiranandani depicts the twins’ relationship exceptionally nicely, deeply growing her characters as they bounce their ideas and fears off of one another. 

This is a superb work of historic fiction, seamlessly and sensitively integrating the private and the political. A very empathetic younger man, Amil wonders why he and his household managed to outlive their migration whereas others perished or ended up in refugee camps as an alternative of a snug house. After befriending Vishal, who’s homeless and with out household, Amil wonders why his new buddy is “a boy exactly like he was, just unlucky instead of lucky.” 

With Amil and the After, Veera Hiranandani masterfully presents a robust, unvarnished examination of tough subject material whereas paving the approach ahead with hope and love.