She had left behind a body of writing including these 16 stories which were published posthumously in 2019, when she would have been 18. At times, reading this collection is almost alarming for how frequently and deeply these stories written by a teenager explore death, living with death and dying. A good third of the collection is one story broken into three and spread through the book, interspersed by other stories. Fathers are absent, and the mothers go out every evening leaving take-out noodles for dinner, failing to protect their daughter from abuse and exploitation. While the writing might be a little underdeveloped and uneven for adult readers, it holds a serious mirror to them — one that tells them to listen, to engage more deeply with what children, and those approaching adulthood, are saying and thinking.

Source: Indian Express January 26, 2020 00:38 UTC