Girls burn brighter: Shobha Rao - Rilegato

'Girls Burn Brighter by Shobha Rao blew my heart up. Heart-shards everywhere. I am in awe of the warmth and humanity in this book, even as it explores some incredibly dark places. I'm going to be thinking about Girls Burn Brighter for a while, and you're going to be hearing a lot about it' (Charlie Jane Anders, author of All the Birds in the Sky)

Burns with intensity . . . [Rao] is clearly a writer of great ambition (USA Today)

A searing portrait of what feminism looks like in much of the world (Vogue)

Shobha Rao writes cleanly and eloquently about women who, without their brightness, might have been left to die in their beds. She writes them into life, into existence, into the light of day (Los Angeles Times)

Rao evokes the landscape of poverty with great skill . . . this is a timely portrayal of human traffi cking, cultural misogyny and the battles still fought every day by millions of women worldwide (Hannah Beckerman Observer)

Elegant and eloquent . . . this emotionally devastating story is at times almost too harrowing to read (Eithne Farry Mail on Sunday)