Sonia Faleiro
Sonia Faleiro (b. 1977) was born in Goa and has lived in New Delhi and Edinburgh, Scotland. She holds a Bachelors degree in History from St. Stephen’s, New Delhi and a Masters degree from the University of Edinburgh.
She is currently based in Mumbai where she works as a journalist and fiction writer. Her non-fiction writing has appeared in leading Indian publications. She is now Assistant Editor, Tehelka.
Sonia Faleiro’s debut novel The Girl was well-received and appreciated for its stylistic prose.
Works
The Girl
The Girl is the story of an anonymous girl (referred to as simply “the Girl” throughout the novel) from a sleepy village named Azul in Goa. On a gloomy December evening she is found dead and no one in Azul is surprised. But two men who knew and loved her are achingly curious to discover what made her give up her life to the sea.
As they turn the pages of her diary, the story of The Girl unravels. While she is coming to terms with her life and troubled childhood, she meets a backpacker and loses her heart to him. However, their life together does not last, and she languishes with unrequited love and decides to end her misery. After her death the lost lover returns, consumed with guilt, to live in her house.
The novel is brief, but richly atmospheric, and succeeds in faithfully recording the descriptions of Goa, its inhabitants, along with their mannerisms and attitudes.