A Girl Within a Girl Within a Girl

On an ordinary day in an upscale Atlanta suburb, Maya is making breakfast for her two sons, when her husband drops a red-and-blue striped envelope on the counter and asks a devastating question: Who is Sunny?

Maya is sent reeling back to her childhood in Guyana-a time when Sunny was her only name. Unbeknownst to her husband, Maya is not who she claims to be. The letter, from her long-lost sister Roshi, now threatens to expose her true identity and shatter the seemingly perfect existence Maya worked so hard to build.

As she frantically weighs the impact of the truth on her future, Maya relives the harrowing details of her past-her journey to America on the "backtrack," the shock of being delivered into the hands of an abusive family while being severed from her own, and her many evolutions of self as she struggles to find a path forward against all odds.

This striking debut transports the reader from the sugar cane fields of Guyana to the world of immigrant laborers in Miami to the affluent suburbs of Atlanta. Nanda Reddy takes us on a wrenching journey of assimilation, survival, and reinvention that explores the very construct of identity and the resilience of the human spirit.

About the Author

Nanda Reddy is a Guyanese American writer and former elementary school teacher. She immigrated to the U.S. with her family when she was nine years old and grew up in Miami, Florida. She loves visiting off-the-grid places, hiking, and painting with watercolors. She currently resides in Reno, Nevada with her husband and two teenage sons. A Girl Within a Girl Within a Girl is her first novel.