Twelve-year-old Raj is happiest flying kites with his best friend, Iqbal. As their kites soar, Raj feels free, like his beloved India soon will be, and he can't wait to celebrate their independence. But when a British lawyer draws a line across a map, splitting India in two, Raj is thrust into a fractured world. With Partition declared, Hindu, Sikh, and Muslim families are torn apart--and Raj's Hindu and Iqbal's Muslim families are among them. Forced...

Nathaniel Conti is in his first year of college, flung into new circumstances with new people to meet. There are public speaking classmates, lacrosse players--and then there's the aspiring photographer who asks Nathaniel to be their model, who's interested in more than what's on the surface. Nathaniel feels like he's moving forward--until a former friend shows up, someone who reminds him of habits and hurts he thought he'd left behind. Content warning:...