In celebration of the release of the fiercely political and headily romantic debut novel, The Fertile Earth, spend a night in with author Ruthvika Rao.

Irumi village, Telangana. Vijaya and Sree are the daughters of the wealthy, landowning Deshmukh family, whose social status and power are absolute. Krishna and Ranga are the sons of a widowed servant in the household. The four children ought never to have spoken, let alone become friends, but the bonds they form are intense – and dangerous.

When Vijaya suggests they track down a tiger that is rumoured to be circling Irumi, the children are caught up in a terrible accident. The consequences of that day reverberate through their lives, scattering them to different corners of India.

It will be years before they meet again, and despite the differences in their class and status, Vijaya and Krishna find themselves irresistibly drawn back to each other. But India is burning from the inside out, and when violent uprisings break out in Irumi, a shocking act of vengeance threatens to change all of their lives forever.

Don’t miss this captivating evening where Ruthvika, alongside Aube Rey Lescure, will explore the evolution of romantic love, political unrest, and societal divisions against a vividly drawn social canvas of twentieth-century India.