Tell A Thousand Lies

By Rasana Atreya

In a land where skin colour can determine one's destiny, fraternal twins PULLAMMA and LATA are about to embark on a journey that will tear their lives apart.

Dark skinned Pullamma dreams of being a wife. With three girls in her family, the sixteen year old is aware there isn't enough dowry to secure suitable husbands for them all. But a girl can hope. She's well versed in cooking, pickle making, cow washing -- you name it. She's
also obliged her old-fashioned grandmother by not doing well in school.

Fair skinned and pretty, her twin sister Lata would rather study medicine than get married. Unable to grasp the depth of Lata's desire, the twins' Grandmother formalizes a wedding alliance for the girl. Distraught, Lata rebels, with devastating consequences.

As Pullamma helps ready the house for her older sister Malli's bride viewing, she prays for a positive outcome to the event. What happens next is so inconceivable that it will shape Pullamma's future in ways she couldn't have foreseen.

TELL A THOUSAND LIES is a sometimes wry, sometimes sad, but ultimately realistic look at how superstition and the colour of a girl's skin rules India's hinterlands.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Rasana Atreya
• Release date: Mar 24, 2013
• ISBN: 9781301263660

Rasana Atreya

Rasana Atreya’s debut novel, Tell A Thousand Lies, was shortlisted for the Tibor Jones South Asia Prize. This novel was taught at the University of New Mexico, Albuquerque’s English 479. Glam magazine (UK) calls this “one of our five favourite tales from India.”  The University of New Mexico, Albuquerque’s publication Emerging South Asian Women Writers: Essays and Interviews (From Antiquity to Modernity Book 1) by Feroza Jussawalla and Deborah Fillerup Weagel has a writeup on Rasana. After working in IT for several years, Rasana made a successful transition to writing fiction. Rasana was one of India’s self-publishing pioneers. She did this after declining a trade-publishing contract. Amazon flew her to New Delhi for the launch of the Kindle. Rasana lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her husband and two children. Her son is in college, and daughter is grumpily finishing high school over Zoom.  Her novels, all standalones, are loosely tied together in a series, Tales From The Deccan Plateau: * Tell A Thousand Lies     (March 2012) * Talking Is Wasted Breath (Previously 28 Years A Bachelor. December 2020) * Daughters Inherit Silence (February 2021) * The Water Wives (Launching in 2022) * The Temple Is Not My Father (Expanding novella into a novel. Launching in 2022) * Tell A Lie, Beget A Daughter (Launching in 2022) Sign up https://RasanaAtreya.com for news about launches and promotions.

Reviews for Tell A Thousand Lies

[poetreegirl · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A corrupt politician ruins many lives in a small Indian village by playing on the superstitious beliefs of its residents. In his obsession for power, he toys with the fates of three sisters, altering their lives in unimaginable ways. An intriguing peek into small village life in India.

[janesteen_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Where I got the book: copy supplied by author.Whoops! This was supposed to be my April indie review but yeah, I got a bit behind. This was one of those occasions where an author cold-pitches me and I'm immediately intrigued by the setup, but I had NO IDEA of the directions this novel was going to go in. It starts quietly: because Pullamma's dark-skinned and tall and therefore not attractive by the standards of her corner of rural India, she is allowed to be present at her sister's bride-viewing party (she won't distract the future bridegroom's attention from her sister). So straightaway you have this sketch of what life is (was?) like for a woman without dowry or beauty: pretty bleak. I loved the way Atreya put me straight into India; unfortunately I've never visited the country but I got a vivid picture of the scene, the attitudes of the villagers, Pullamma's own drily humorous resignation to her lot. And all this in flawless English that wasn't any the less Indian for being correct.So I wasn't expecting the stranger who throws himself at Pullamma's feet, a dead child in his arms...Which neatly introduces the second theme, that of superstition. Pretty interesting, because I was sure at the outset that it would be Pullamma's dark skin (equating to unattractiveness) that would limit her options as a woman, but in fact it's the superstitious gullibility of the villagers that both traps and frees her. Pullamma's newfound status as a goddess makes her, for the first time in her life, useful, but unfortunately the man she's useful to is the unrelievedly evil Kondal Rao who exploits her for his political aims. The drastic action that she's forced to take to escape Rao's influence frees her from the limitations she's imposed upon herself, while causing her heartbreak worthy of Bollywood drama at its best.And that's how I ended up seeing it: as a Bollywood story, full of improbable coincidences and tragic sobs. The melodrama lessens its effectiveness as a novel from a Western viewpoint but wow, what a story. I'd love to see it made into a movie.

[carylweiss · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I loved this book from the beginning all the way to the end!! The main character starts out as a girl and ends up as a happy woman, while teaching the reader about life lessons she/he might not have experienced. It is a very feel good book, but it also moves you to tears.