Faces in the Water

Fifteen-year-old Gurmi has always believed that the well in the family farmhouse is the secret for his family s supposed good fortune. The Diwanchand family has always taken pride in the fact that they have only sons, no daughters. When Gurmi visits the farmhouse and looks into the well, he sees the faces of three girls looking up at him from the water. The girls draw him into a supernatural world of fun, games and magic. However, Gurmi also realizes that they represent a dark secret. It is a secret which his family has always wanted to protect, no matter what the cost. Terrible crimes have defaced the name of the Diwanchand family. Gurmi is driven by a need to find the truth and exact justice from the perpetrators, but his only allies are the three ghosts. Dark, funny and tragic at times, this is the story of our society s distaste for female children and an embodiment of female infanticide at its darkest.

Ranjit Lal is an Indian writer. He has written fiction and nonfiction for children and adults. Among his other books are The Caterpillar Who Went on a Diet and Other Stories, When Banshee Kissed Bimbo and Other Bird Stories and The Battle for No. 19.

Lal won the Crossword Best Children s Book Award in 2010 and the Laadli National Media Award for Faces in the Water.