In Prasad's touching first novel, Adele Pietra, a poor girl from a Connecticut granite quarry town in the 1930s, becomes a pioneer at Yale—disguised as her brother. Adele grows up in a town where the working-class residents never mix with the upper-crust vacationers. Except, that is, for Adele's parents; her mother was cut off by her wealthy family after she married a dashing Italian stonecutter. After a quarry accident kills Adele's father and her brother, Charles, Adele impersonates Charles and attends Yale in his place. At Yale, she makes friends with a stereotypically bookish, money-minded boy from Manhattan and handsome WASP Wick, who presents the greatest temptation to shed her assumed masculinity. The polarity of her upbringing adds meaning to an unexpected twist: Adele's work-study job is to assist a bigoted professor conducting a crooked study aimed at proving the rabble is intellectually inferior to the upper classes. Prasad has obviously done a great deal of research for this novel, and while some of it is integrated clumsily, she captures the excitement and strangeness of beginning college. Transcending the sometimes labored period setting—and wisely taking for granted the strictures of society that make Adele's charade necessary—Prasad renders believable a girl who becomes herself in a most unlikely way.
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"In Adele, Chandra Prasad has created an inspired and timeless heroine whose intelligence, imagination, and determination has you rooting for her from the very first page. Prasad's powerful prose matches the vital, urgent vigor of youth, particularly the bond of friendship. Her novel combines drama and a strong sense of place that provides both a lesson in history and a fine read." -- Sara Gruen, author of
Water for Elephants"Authentically and beguilingly, with admirable daring and wit, Chandra Prasad has written a modern fairy tale that transports her readers to a very particular era and place. She reminds us, importantly, about which things in our world remain constant -- and which have changed so swiftly in so little time." -- Julia Glass, author of
Three Junes and
The Whole World Over"
On Borrowed Wings is an intriguing and moving debut. Prasad writes with the skill and confidence of an already seasoned author." -- Cristina Garcia, author of
Dreaming in Cuban"Written in spare, elegant prose, this gem of a book is both rhetorically and dramatically compelling. It is, in short, a finely crafted page-turner." -- Jake Halpern, commentator on NPR's
All Things Considered and author of
Fame Junkies"In Chandra Prasad's compelling debut novel, Adele Pietra, a poor yet ambitious girl from a Connecticut granite quarry town in the 1930s, assumes the identity of her deceased brother and attends Yale University. Throughout this page turner, Adele faces the normal challenges of freshman year that any undergraduate would: meeting buddies, falling in love, keeping up with schoolwork; except she also carries the burden of keeping her true identity concealed. Prasad develops each character beautifully and we soon begin to think of the intrepid heroine's friends as our own. This coming of age story is a great read and I look forward to reading more of the writer's work in the future." -- Melissa Kagan,
Lifetime TV"A story of race, class, gender, and family -- though you so root for the young woman's dream of ambition that you don't notice until the novel is done. That's great, believable storytelling." -Faith Middleton, NPR's
Faith Middleton Show"
On Borrowed Wings is an impressive debut for Chandra Prasad" -- Drew Gallagher,
The Free Lance-Star"In her splendid debut novel
On Borrowed Wings, Hamden author Chandra Prasad explores the theme of identity in all its myriad forms -- gender, race, class and ethnicity -- in a poignant tale about a young woman whose fate is forever changed when tragedy takes the lives of her father and brother." -- Patricia D'Ascoli,
The New Haven Register
