Quiet Screams to the Quiet Healer by Nilanjana Halder

Many children are victims of domestic abuse and other hardships like illness and poverty. Quiet Screams to the Quiet Healer is the story of Sanjana and based on a collection of real-life experiences collected by the author.

The plot of the story follows Sanjana from when she is a child growing up in the West Bengal city of Jalpaiguri. Sanjana dreads being at home to witness her father's abuse towards her mother. She spends most of her time either at the library with her best friend Kriti or at Kriti's home, where she witnesses Kriti's hardships in the form of her father's debilitating illness. Sanjana is a caring and curious child who does her best to help her friend Kriti help her father, but feels helpless in doing anything about her problems at home.

At the library, Sanjana and Kriti befriend the local library guard, whom they lovingly call Grandpa. Grandpa appears to have a mysterious past that Sanjana wants to get to the bottom of, and it leads her on a puzzling path of discovery. Unfortunately, before she can unearth any answers, her father announces he is moving the family to Delhi, and Sanjana must say goodbye to Kriti and Grandpa. As times go one Sanjana makes new friends, but her adjustment in Delhi is hard because her home-life has become even more unbearable. Will Sanjana have the courage to stand up to her father? Will she be able to maintain her friendship with Kriti after her devastating news? In the final arch of the book, Sanjana is a young professional and finds herself involved with a secret group whose mission is to help people break free from their hardships.

Quiet Screams to the Quiet Healer has mental health issues front and center. It also takes great care to bring awareness to domestic violence and abuse that is deep-rooted in Indian culture. This book is sure to help inspire people to get involved in the movement for change, where we can start to understand each other better.

As a reader who is not a native Indian, reading this book was a unique look into a world that is very different from my own. I felt transported to India in a much more realistic way than the dramatized versioned in the Bollywood films I've seen. There is a lot to enjoy in Quiet Screams to the Quiet Healer, from illustrations to the vast story of Sanjana and her friends. 

Review by Sarah Hinrichs