Shortlisted for the 2020 Booker Prize and one of NPR’s Best Books of 2020, Burnt Sugar looks at the “complex and unusual mother-daughter relationship with honest, unflinching realism – sometimes emotionally wrenching but also cathartic, written with poignancy and memorability.” Set in India, it is a story about mothers and daughters, obsession and betrayal.

Speaking from Dubai, author Avni Doshi will be in conversation with Christina Baker Kline, #1 New York Times bestselling author of eight novels.

All authors appear for free and the best way you can support them is to buy their book. Avni's book is available from Festival partner Watchung Booksellers here.

Avni Doshi was born in New Jersey and received her BA in art history from Barnard College and her MA in history of art at University College, London. While working as an art writer and curator in India, Avni began writing fiction. She has been awarded the Tibor Jones South Asia Prize and a Charles Pick Fellowship. Her debut novel, Burnt Sugar, was longlisted for the prestigious Tata Literature Live! First Book Award upon its publication in India and was shortlisted for the 2020 Booker Prize in Fiction. Avni lives in Dubai with her family.

Christina Baker Kline is the bestselling author of eight novels, includingThe Exiles, Orphan Train, and A Piece of the World. Her novels have received the New England Prize for Fiction, the Maine Literary Award, and a Barnes & Noble Discover Award, among other prizes, and have been chosen by hundreds of communities, universities and schools as “One Book, One Read” selections. Her essays, articles, and reviews have appeared in publications such as the New York Times and the NYT Book Review, The Boston Globe, The San Francisco Chronicle, LitHub, Psychology Today, and Slate.

This event is part of Succeed2gether’s Montclair Literary Festival's special series of author events, Global Voices taking place on March 20 and March 21, 2021, and featuring authors and poets from England, Scotland, Ireland, Korea, Iran, Dubai, Sri Lanka, Ecuador, and Spain.  The fifth annual Montclair Literary Festival will take place on Saturday October 2, 2021, with a combination of live and online events.

See all of the talks by following us on Crowdcast here or visiting our website events page here.

Any proceeds from the festival benefit parent organization, Montclair-based non-profit Succeed2gether, which offers after-school one-on-one tutoring and enrichment classes with the aim of closing the education and opportunity gaps in Essex County, NJ. You can read more about Succeed2gether and the festival at www.succeed2gether.org.

The festival organizing committee wishes to thank event partners Montclair Public Library and Watchung Booksellers, and festival sponsors Rao's, West of Hudson Realty Group, Jill Williams (Ameriprise Financial), Ferguson Dental, the County of Essex, and community members.

Avni Doshi "Burnt Sugar" with Christina Baker Kline