Everyone is happy, and no one talks of independence or partition. At the party, the family home is festive. With the riots moving closer, Papa determines it is time to leave, but first he throws a party to say goodbye to their friends and family. Intruders enter the family’s home, vandalizing it and beating Kazi. Amil is artistic and extroverted, but has a reading disability, incurring the wrath of Papa. While Nisha is academically minded, she rarely speaks and only to the beloved Muslim cook, Kazi, and Amil. Papa pulls the twins out of school and their grandmother, Dadi, gives them their lessons. As August 15, the day of independence, approaches, the divide between Hindus and Muslims deepens and acts of violence between the groups begin to occur, even at school.

Indian independence will result in the division of their country into two countries: one for Muslims (Pakistan,) and one for Hindus, Sikhs, and everyone else (new India). Nisha and her brother overhear adult conversations about independence and partition. The twins’ father, Papa, is Hindu, and their Mama, was Muslim, a unique position to be in on the cusp of India’s independence from Britain. It’s Nisha and Amil’s 12th birthday, and the day that their mother died in childbirth. It is an ALA Notable Book and a New York Times Editor’s Choice Pick. The novel explores themes of hope, courage, family, and identity, is a 2019 Newbery Honor book, and received the Walter Dean Myers and Malka Penn Awards for its contributions to diversity, equity, and human rights.

In The Night Diary, Hiranandani explains the historical significance of independence and partition and shows its violent, divisive impact on Hindus, Muslims, and Sikhs.

The fictional family in the novel is loosely based on the childhood experiences of Hiranandani’s father, whose family, like Nisha’s, made the journey to new India when part of India became Pakistan. In it, the author chronicles the events of India’s post-World War II independence from Britain and subsequent partition through the voice of a 12-year-old Indian girl, Nisha. The Night Diary, Veera Hiranandani’s 2018 work of historical fiction for middle-grade and young adult readers, consists of 60 diary entries spanning approximately four months.

The night diary veera hiranandani