Arefa Tehsin’s The Witch in the Peepul Tree hits The Asian Review‘s book of the month for December 2023. And 2nd book in this year by HarperCollins India and represented by Kanishka Gupta

Here is the blurb: It is Makar Sankranti,1950, when sixteen-year-old Sanaz’s body is discovered in her father Dada Bhai’s house in Bohrawadi, Udaipur. A few of those in and around the house that day are the cruel zamindar Rao sahib of Singhgarh, the devout degenerate Hariharan, the young Bhil Nathu, visiting from a remote tribal village to inform Dada Bhai of a leopard kill, the attractive night soil worker Parijat, and the acerbic widow Sugra, who rolls a rosary and wishes for the jeevti dakkan-the living witch in the peepul tree-to be her secret ally. As the shadows grow long, it becomes clear that something sinister walks the halls of this grand old house. What unfolds is a genre-bending tale of suspense, intrigue and something so much darker.

About Arefa: Arefa Tehsin is the author of several fiction and non-fiction books, both for children and adults, and contributes columns, features and travel articles to various publications like The Indian Express, The Hindu, Deccan Herald, Outlook Money and TerraGreen. Her book The Chirmi Chasers was shortlisted for Neev Book Award 2021. Amra and the Witch was shortlisted for FCCI’s Best Book of the Year Award 2019. She was shortlisted for the The Hindu Young World-Goodbooks Best Author Award 2017 for her book Wild in the Backyard. The picture book The Elephant Bird was read at 3200+ locations in India from the slums to the Presidential library on the International Literacy Day, 2016 and translated in 35+ languages. Do Tigers Drink Blood and 13 Other Mysteries of Nature is being translated in Chinese. A few schools in India and Sri Lanka have taken up her books as textbooks and supplementary readers. The fantasy book ‘Iora and the Quest of Five’ was released in the U.S. and U.K. in 2022. ‘Witch on the Peepul Tree’, her first novel for adults, has been published by HarperCollins in June, 2023. Daughter of the renowned naturalist Dr. Raza H. Tehsin, Arefa has spent her childhood days treading jungles with her father, exploring caves and handling snakes. She was appointed as the Honorary Wildlife Warden of Udaipur district and has pursued nature conservation through her writings and columns

By Andrew Williams