Nine Paths

On an island at the edge of India, rural, remote and dense with jungle, is a Muslim village. Anthropologist Lexi Stadlen spent sixteen months here, talking, listening, recording, and over time getting to know the people. There were in particular nine women who came forward, willing to share their complicated, fascinating lives, and it is their stories that are documented here.Over the year, that takes us from one monsoon season to another, we follow the lives of these nine Muslim women and their families, through everyday drudgery and unexpected turmoil, the grind of poverty and the dreams of something better. In an ever-shifting landscape of mangroves and rivers, these women contend with lack of education, the restrictions of their religion, rising sectarian tensions, and the devastation caused by flooding and extreme heat. There are weddings to celebrate and deaths to mourn, difficult marriages to navigate and tragedies to overcome, in a place where secrets are impossible to keep and one's neighbours are often too close for comfort.Revelatory, lyrical and immersive, Nine Paths is an extraordinary book that takes you deep into these ordinary women's worlds. Their stories are urgent, brilliant, forcefully articulated - and this book gives us the chance to hear them.