Into the beating heart of Bombay, a city that spins cotton into gold, a young man, Tatya, arrives to make a living. Ambitious and hard-working, he begins to make a name for himself in the city’s famed textile market. Meanwhile, his new bride, Radha, navigates the joys and the challenges of raising a family in a city that is a curious and often bewildering mix of the traditional and the rapidly modernizing.
Having tasted success in the world of textiles, Tatya chances upon an opportunity in an emerging industry—motion pictures—and is swept up in it despite his initial hesitation about this strange world of make-believe. His success seems unstoppable—the silent films he produces draw in the crowds and his new theatre is a marvel, but his friendship with and attraction to an actress, Kamal, threatens to shake his world and causes him to question his integrity.
Set against the backdrop of bustling colonial Bombay, The Secret of More is a journey of relentless ambition, steadfast love, and grim betrayal, as Tatya strives to unlock the secret of more—of having more and being more. In a story that travels from the clatter of textile mills to the glamour of the silent film industry, from the crowded chawls of Girgaon to the luxury of sea-facing mansions, one man and his family learn that in the city of Bombay you can fly—but if you fall, it is a long way down
TEJASWINI APTE-RAHM is a writer from Mumbai. She is the author of the short story collection These Circuses That Sweep Through the Landscape, and co-author of The Poop Book!—an environmental education book for children. She worked as a journalist and environmental researcher. She studied in Singapore and the UK, and has lived in Serbia, Israel, Cambodia, Thailand, Myanmar, Bangladesh, and Fiji. She currently lives in Azerbaijan. The Secret of More is her first novel.
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