Publisher's Synopsis
A remarkable work of investigative reporting and non-fiction writing in the tradition of Truman Capote's In Cold Blood Journalist Pinki Virani recreates the real-life tragedy of Aruna Shanbaug, who was attacked with a dog chain and brutally raped in the very hospital where she was a nurse, and abandoned by her family thereafter. Brain-dead for sight, speech and movement, yet hopelessly alive to pain, hunger and terror, she now lies, barely alive, in the hospital where she once treated patients back to health. Virani's investigations also unearthed the crowning tragedy: while Aruna has been in coma for over twenty-five years, her rapist, a sweeper in the hospital, walked a free man after a mere seven years in prison for 'robbery and attempt to murder'. Vivid and gut-wrenching, this is a book that will haunt the reader long after the final page has been turned. 'Pinki Virani has narrated Aruna's brutalization through meticulous and persistent research. The structure of the book is notable in the way it resists sensationalism.' --The Telegraph 'Virani's book is researched, thought-provoking, sharp. It is both sad and angry, scathing and restrained.' --Pioneer '...her storytelling skil;..an amazing effort in retelling a true-life tragedy.' --Asian Age
