For two decades, the three survivors have lived down a mysterious disappearance near the forests of Udaipur. They are now a bestselling author, an undiplomatic diplomat, and the wife of the Indian cricket captain. When a funeral reunites them in Colombo, a journalist starts digging into their buried past and asks the one question they can’t answer: What happened to the fourth girl?
They discover that some ghosts refuse to stay dead. The reckoning they’ve always feared has finally arrived.
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QUOTES ABOUT ‘THE FOURTH GIRL”
“Arefa knows how to pin you down with a fast-moving tale about turn-of-the-century Udaipur.”
- Pradip KrishenFilmmaker, Author and Environmentalist
“Lyrical, intriguing and wickedly plotted. Once in, don’t stop.”
- Paro Anand, author
“Sharp, sensory, and morally alive.”
- Pramudith D. Rupasinghe, Laureate of the Golden Aster Prize for Global Literature
“Blazingly unique… Hashtag enthralling!”
- Mrinalini Harchandrai, poet and novelist
“Tearing apart facades while retaining her quick humour, whimsical wordplay and sharp observation… Arefa doesn’t disappoint.
- Shreekumar Varma, author, playwright, columnis
“Intriguing characters, scintillating prose…Tehsin’s expert storytelling will keep you glued to the page from beginning to end.”
- Deepa Agarwal, Author and Poet
“Travels and travails intersect in this elegant cocktail of social manners, mysterious twists and a keen sense of sights and sounds, written in a breezy style that mixes commercial fiction with literary charm.”
- Madhavan Narayan, Journalist and Senior Editor
“Another Arefa Adventure, with all her signature characters: trackers, foresters, the Aravallis, rest house verandahs, buzzards… and a narrative that’s a rapid page-turner.”
- Zai Whitaker, Author & Co-Founder – Madras Crocodile Bank
“This is a delicious novel in every sense of the word: rich, intoxicating and impossible to put down… A magnificent, emotionally resonant page-turner that lingers long after the mystery is solved.”
- Michiel Baas, Author and Literature Festival Director
“A tension-soaked triumph… Both haunting and brilliant, I found it impossible to put down.”
- Somnath Batabyal, Investigative Journalist and Novelist
“Arefa Tehsin takes you on a hair-raising ride, from the jungles of smart Colombo to the forts of Udaipur and back, in this page-turner of a thriller. Buckle up tight!”
- Ashok Ferrey, author of Hot Butter Cuttlefish
Brisk, gripping writing. Couldn’t stop turning the pages.
- Deepak Dalal, Bestselling author of the Vikram Aditya series
Feminine friendships, intrigue, enchantment and more, all rolled in a time-lapse narrative — The Fourth Girl by Arefa Tehsin is cinematic in scope!
- Sudeep Sen, author of the internationally acclaimed, Anthropocene
Travels and travails intersect in this contemporary mystery that draws into ancient mythology to produce an elegant cocktail of social manners set in a gripping yet breezy narrative that reads like a travelogue but probes deep into the human psyche. The sights, sounds and smells of Sri Lanka and Udaipur intertwine to give one a strong sense of being there.
- Madhavan Narayanan, Journalist and Author
An unflinching look at the many-fanged contexts that shape us, The Fourth Girl shines a light on how women may claw back power from systems that offer us none. Wide-ranging and prescient, with a deep sense of place and human behaviour, Tehsin invites us to fall in.
- Tashan Mehta, Author of Mad Sisters of Esi
A pacy thriller with detailed social observation, The Fourth Girl combines Arefa’s love for the forest with mystery, fraught friendships and contemporary South Asian politics. The four friends are written as layered characters whose stories unravel the many ways in which violence affects women’s lives and also how solidarity enables them.
- Samina Mishra, Documentary Filmmaker and Author
This is a cinematic, surprising and visually rich novel. Tehsin creates highly memorable characters and pushes them beyond their limits. Cleverly observed and nonchalantly nuanced, The Fourth Girl is a cracking ride. The women in this book have extraordinarily well-dressed skeletons in their closets.
- Raja Sen, Indian Film Critic, Columnist and Screenwriter
This is a cinematic, surprising and visually rich novel. Tehsin creates highly memorable characters and pushes them beyond their limits. Cleverly observed and nonchalantly nuanced, The Fourth Girl is a cracking ride. The women in this book have extraordinarily well-dressed skeletons in their closets.
- Gargi Rawat, News Anchor and Environmental Reporter for NDTV
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