That curiosity manifested inThe Night Diary, a middle-grade novel that illuminates the event.
Below, Hiranandani talks to EW about history, identity, and the choices that broughtThe Night Diaryto life.
[As an adult], I wanted to write a book that was for that kid… One series that was really meaningful to me was Sydney TaylorsAll-of-a-Kind Family.
Credit: Penguin;Dial Books
Its about a Jewish family in the Lower East Side of New York.
[One] side of my family is Jewish, and I envied their solid sense of identity.
I didnt really find that [on] my South Asian side.
I felt those influences more as an adult.
I often reference the movieGandhibecause I saw it when I was 11.
Id heard a bit about Partition [and] how I was connected somehow to this piece of history.
But when I saw it on an American movie screen, I realized the magnitude of the history.
My fathers family was lucky they had to leave their home and community, but they survived.
They werent attacked, they didnt go through any huge violent episodes.
Nisha is both Muslim and Hindu inThe Night Diary.
I would talk to my father and get information that would echo that part of the history.
And the questions that I have about Partition in general.
I mean, Ive done a lot of research now, and I still cant fully understand it.
My favorite part of the book is the sibling dynamic between Nisha and her brother Amil.
When I first started writing the book, years ago, the main character was actually a boy.
I think I was sort of modeling it on a younger version of my father.
But as I wrote, I wasnt fully connecting to the character deeply enough.
And their relationship was evolving, and I was observing that as a mother.
So its all those things, its my father, its me, its my son and daughter.
Those were all the pieces to create them.
Amil seems to be dyslexic in the novel.
So I purposely left them unnamed and up for interpretation.
It was something that felt familiar to me.
I think that creating Papa, who felt that way, just felt real to me.
Towards the end of the book, there is some violence that is pretty brutal.
Im sure thats a consideration, when youre writing for young readers, about what youre going to include.
But then, how do I balance that?
How am I truthful to the history without being inappropriate for young readers?
The story certainly has a hopeful ending, but not all of it is resolved.
But at the same time, those kinds of changes tend to take a long time.
