Sarita Mandanna’s Tiger Hills making waves
Novelist Puttichanda Sarita Mandanna’s recently released novel ‘Tiger Hills’, set in Kodagu (Coorg), has started making waves. Sarita is scheduled to speak on her book this week in London.
New York-based Sarita was in the news last year following reports that she had received the largest advance Penguin India had ever paid for a debut novel (Tiger Hills).
Sarita, daughter of Col. Kambeyanda Ben Mandanna and Dr Charimanda Rani Mandanna, is married to Puttichanda Siddarth Apaya, son of Puttichanda Indra (who served in the merchant navy) and Avani Poovaiah.
Tiger Hills is a sweeping popular narrative which also has elements of romance in it. The plot of the novel is interesting.
The year is 1878. As the first girl to be born to the Nachimandas in
over sixty years, beautiful, spirited Devi is adored by her entire
family. She befriends Devanna, a gifted young boy whose mother has
died in tragic circumstances. The two quickly become inseparable,
‘like two eggs in a nest’, as they grow up amidst the luscious
jungles, rolling hills, and rich coffee plantations of Coorg in
Southern India; cocooned by an extended family whose roots have been
sunk in the land for hundreds of years. Their futures seem inevitably
linked, but everything changes when, one night, they attend a ‘tiger
wedding’. It is there that Devi gets her first glimpse of Machu, the
celebrated tiger killer and a hunter of great repute. Although she is
still a child and Machu is a man, Devi vows that one day she will
marry him. It is this love that will gradually drive a wedge between
Devi and Devanna, sowing the seeds of a heartbreaking tragedy that
will have consequences for the generations to come””.
According to sources, Tiger Hills is likely to be released in India sometime in July this year.
Sarita is an investment banker. She did her MBA in finance from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, a post-graduate degree in management from the Indian Institute of Management and a Bachelor’s Degree in Commerce from the Shriram College at Delhi.
