The Literary Mirror

Merchant's collection takes its title seriously but not literally: none of the twelve stories concerns the 1947 Partition directly. Instead each one finds a smaller division — a shared kitchen split by an inheritance dispute, a joint business separated by a WhatsApp group two brothers are quietly removed from.

The best story, 'The Common Wall', follows two sisters-in-law negotiating a literal wall built through a family home, and manages to be funny and bleak in the same paragraph without the tonal whiplash that sinks weaker versions of this trick.

A few stories lean too hard on the title's conceit, forcing a 'partition' where the material doesn't need one. Trimmed by two or three entries, this would be an excellent collection rather than a good one with an excellent core.

“Merchant's borders are drawn in chalk, not barbed wire — and just as hard to uncross.”