Beyond FICTION: ON BORROWED WINGS by Chandra Prasad

When I read and reviewed Mixed: An Anthology of Short Fiction on the Multiracial Experience, I checked out editor Chandra Prasad’s website. I became intrigued by Chandra’s background and her upcoming novel, On Borrowed Wings, which is now in print with Simon & Schuster’s Atria Books. A Yale alum and New Haven resident, Chandra has close ties to the main setting of her story, the Yale campus, but she chose a time period that made this setting a foreign, almost foreboding place for any contemporary woman. The historic research she conducted on 1930s Connecticut, New Haven, and Yale shines through, adding significant interest to her story of a girl who replaces her brother as an enrolled freshman at the revered, all-male, university. Questions of ethnicity, class, gender, and ethics collide as the main character struggles to overcome one weighty obstacle after another in her quest not only to become a convincing young man, but to grow into her own self as an educated, inspired—and inspiring—young woman. Kudos, Chandra!