Some stories take years to find their way out. This one is on its way.
Dark Orange Moppets
A debut novel by Gowri Kabali
Missing boys. Buried secrets. One young woman asking questions she was never meant to ask.
Maya returns to Chennai expecting the comfort of familiar faces. Then a small kindness sets something in motion.
A boy with a borrowed cricket bat. A feeling she cannot explain. Reassurances that leave her less reassured.
The more questions she asks, the less she knows whom to believe. Beyond the house, the rain keeps falling. Within the familiar rhythms of home, something has shifted.
Some silences protect the people we love. Others protect the people we should fear.
By the time Maya begins to understand the difference, the roads are disappearing beneath the water.
Dark Orange Moppets is a thriller with a beating heart—where affection and unease live side by side, and the people who make us feel safest may be the hardest to see clearly.
A note from the author
Hello, I'm Gowri—Chennai-born, Hong Kong-based, and juggling finance, family, fitness, and now my first novel. I've been writing my first novel long enough for me to say on some days, the fictional characters are the easiest people to deal with.
The first words were penned during October 2015 and I'm still working towards those two lovely words: The End. Preferably before my children start writing their own novels.
This story means a great deal to me. I'm excited to share it, a little nervous, and occasionally proud and confident the story has come along well. Though there have been many evenings of rearranging few chapters which wont count as productive outcomes. Knowing there are readers out there waiting to meet Maya and her moppets would give me a real boost.
Come along for the ride. Join my mailing list below for occasional updates, little peeks between the pages, and opportunities to read early. There's no publication date yet—I'm taking the time to get the story right. And I promise not to email you every time I fix a comma.
If you know someone who enjoys an atmospheric thriller with a beating heart, please send them my way. Sign up, share the link, tell a book-loving friend—it all helps.
Writing may be something I do on my own, but getting this book across the finish line would feel a lot less lonely with you here.
Thank you for cheering me on.
Gowri Kabali
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