Ila Arab Mehta is an award-winning Gujarati author most noted for her explorations of feminist thinking. In this new translation of her beautiful and skillfully crafted novel Fence, we meet Fateema Lokhandwala, a young Muslim woman in present-day Gujarat. Fateema lives in a divided world, where religion and class split society. A member of the Muslim minority, she struggles to carve out a place for herself, seeking her true identity and encountering triumph and tragedy along the way.
Fence is a powerful critique of the damage caused by Indian identity politics. It is also a classic coming-of-age story and a lively, yet tender, exploration by Mehta, a Hindu writer, of the dreams and aspirations of her Muslim sisters.