Since the death of their parents in Mumbai in 2008, Nisha Malik has been
the primary caretaker of her sister Djuna. Their lives in rural eastern
North Carolina have not always been easy, but together with Nisha’s
American husband Michael, they’ve built a community for themselves.
Then, Djuna began her first year at the University of North Carolina in
Chapel Hill, where she lived off campus with two housemates—next door to
an angry and dangerous young man. In the aftermath of her sister’s
murder, Nisha learns that Djuna left behind a journal she kept for
class. This journal becomes the center of a dispute between Nisha and
Djuna’s English professor, an Irish writer desperate for material. In
the course of their meetings and negotiations, they reveal a great deal
to each other about their cultures, their families and their pasts.

“All good stories are detective stories; what makes them important, or not, is what they’re investigating.
The Journal of Djuna Malik is a book that’s after what all of us want: to understand the meaning of our
lives as they operate in the shadow of death. It’s about love, family, and forgiveness, beautifully done.”

—Daniel Wallace, author of Big Fish