It has always been Mira, Ma and Ashu. The three of them-as they sing Simon & Garfunkel in Ma's sun-yellow car, watch TV on the sofa and holiday on the mango farm-are bound firmly together. Yet, beneath this tale of proximity, lurks another story-that of a family in hot water.

Nine-year-old Mira, fourteen-year-old Ashu and Ma harbour secrets. All of them confront questions that have no neat answers. Where is Ma's husband, for instance? Who does Ashu pine for? Why is Mira on the alert?

One long, hot summer, the secrets come tumbling out. And the world Ma, Mira and Ashu have cobbled together threatens to give way.

An achingly beautiful novel, Hot Water traces the ways in which the love we feel for one another can both make and wreck us.

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