In Aishwarya Jha’s second novel, In the Moonlit Kingdom, the haunted-house trope gets a neat twist. When a prodigal daughter returns home for her father’s funeral, it sets off a chain of events. Old ghosts rear their heads; a reckoning awaits.
The reader watches a large part of the story unfold through the eyes of the daughter, Meher. Her family home is an old, crumbling but still stately pile in the mountain town of Munala. Like Manderley in Daphne du Maurier’s classic Rebecca, the house becomes a distinct character in the story.
The Chandra Singhs, Meher’s family, bought it from the last descendants of the Calverts, a British family. The place harbours spirits that seem to haunt only Meher. She had run away from it and made a life for herself abroad, but now that she is back home, she finds herself unsettled and disturbed once again.
The Chandra Singhs are considered the ‘first family’ of Munala on account of their wealth and social standing. Devyani, Meher’s mother, was once a famous film actress who abandoned her flourishing career for marriage and motherhood. She remains the centre of attention in Munala, thanks to her past fame and good looks. Mother and daughter share a fraught relationship. Meher is cast as the proverbial bad apple; prone to acting out, she has acquired a reputation for being unstable. Devyani, on the other hand, attracts sympathy for having to deal with such a difficult daughter.
The story is intricately plotted. A mysterious gift left to Meher by her father becomes the starting point of an intriguing investigation. Hunting for its provenance turns out to be the loose string that unravels the whole tale. Meher stumbles upon a horrifying truth that helps her make sense of her hallucinations and put her ghosts to rest. The revelation hits both her and the reader hard, while also offering Meher closure.
Devyani is a fascinating character study. Drawn as beautiful, fragile and flawed, she is quite literally the star in the movie of her own making. This is a woman who, having been accustomed to the spotlight, will ensure it stays so. Adept at playing the victim card and surrounded by pliable family members and friends who behave like acolytes, she shapes the narrative of her relationship with Meher. Meher’s strength lies in her ability to survive and carve out a life for herself. Her hallucinations make her appear disturbed, but by the end of the book, she has confronted her ghosts and stopped running.
Intergenerational trauma and abuse are woven into the story. The compelling questions the book throws up are: when there are competing narratives, whose version should be accepted as the truth? And why do people choose to believe one version over another? When repressed memories bury trauma deep within, can one give a clear account of what is actually happening? This atmospheric book works on several levels: as a thriller, a ghost story, a family saga and a relationship drama. All these elements mesh seamlessly to make for an absorbing read.
