Memories are best packed up and put away in boxes. Life is full of surprises. We do things which we never thought we would Memories are best packed up and put away in boxes.

Preeti Shenoy

My Rating: 5 / 5

This is the first book by Preeti Shenoy i have read and i would bet anyone who reads her book for the first time would instantly become a fan of her writing style. Simple usage of words and excellent narration.

A Hundred Little Flames is such a beautiful book which talks about how people of 3 generations has evolved, love, faith, friendship, family, greedy, loneliness of old people, habit of writing dairies the book talks about everything in minute details. It’s not a fast paced book, it flows very smoothly making one feel indulged in it at least for it did feel.

Although there are 3 protagonist (Gopal Shankar, Ayan and Rohini) the book starts with Ayan working in a Multi-national company and how he ends up losing his job in a bad note which in turn leads him to go all the way from Pune to Kerala where his life total changes. This part of the book was slow and draggy but once he started living in Kerala and how the author has penned down every minute details making one urge to visit Kerala once in a life time. Ayan was living a peaceful life in Poongavanam a village in Kerala with his grandfather Gopal Shankar. Out of blue moon ayan’s father Jairaj shows up from Bahrain and sends his father Gopal to a mental hospital without his knowledge. It was a thrilling experience how Ayan does the planning with his football team in the village and goes on a mission to find his grandfather.

The real beauty of this book starts here when Gopal Shankar gives permission to Ayan to read his dairies from 1988 – 1989. How Gopal ends up meeting his long lost childhood friend/love (Rohini) and how they cope up with the present situation is beautiful. The dairy entries of Gopal Shankar are mesmerizing, unputdownable. I was moved and felt my heart heavy when the book got over.

This is a must read and I would recommend anyone to take it up and they won’t regret it. This is my first review on books so please forgive me for any grammatical mistakes.