In the autumn of 1939, seventeen-year-old Sammi has been married for only
twenty-one days when her husband, Hari Singh, an officer in the British Indian
Army, is summoned to fight inWWII.The heartbroken couple bid each other
goodbye. Sammi awaits Hari Singh's return in her village, Aliwala, a syncretic
hamlet with Sufi bearings in the hinterland of Punjab. It is 1946 but there is
no word from Hari Singh. He has been gone for nearly seven years. Caught
between her two feuding brothers, Jasjit and Kirpal, the now twenty-threeyear-old Sammi clings to her husband's memory.
India is on the brink of gaining independence from the British. Jasjit worries
that independence will damage age-old communal bonds and separate him
from his closest friend, Zulfi Sheikh. Meanwhile Kirpal plans to solidify his
social standing by forcing Sammi to marry his boyhood friend, the influential
Bachan Singh.Will Sammi be forced into a second marriage or will she find
the courage to step out of the narrow alleys of Aliwala in search of a new life?
Inspired by true events, The Song of Distant Bulbuls is set in a singularly
turbulent time in world history.The novel poses epic questions: is happiness
an elusive goal? Is love the ultimate aim of human life or a means to something
else?What does it take to realize who one truly loves and how much?
