Amil and the After

Chapter One
Amil lay stretched out on the daybed in the living room, trying to balance a thick charcoal pencil on the tip of his nose, his sketchbook sitting open on his chest. He finally got the pencil balanced, and it stood proudly, extending into the air.
Look! he said to Nisha, trying to keep his head still.
Nisha s head jerked up from her writing just as the pencil toppled to the ground. She was always writing something. She used to write every day in her diary. Now she wrote secret stories she wouldn t let anyone see. She stopped writing in her diary because she said it hurt too much to think about the before. She didn t want to think about the old India ­before their horrible walk across the new border, before Amil almost died and Dadi almost died, before the man with the knife tried to attack Nisha, before they saw what they saw on the train.
You re distracting me, she said when the pencil hit the floor.
Aw, you missed it, he said.
Missed what? she asked, absorbed in her writing.
Forget it," he said, and sighed.
He got up, grabbed the pencil from the cool tile floor, and plunked himself back on the daybed. He decided to draw a quick self-­portrait for his mama of what he looked like now. It felt like a message he was sending to her that was somehow different than what she could perhaps see of him in real life.
Amil had never known his mother. She died the day he and Nisha were born, and now, more than twelve years later, his family had traveled far from where his life had briefly connected with hers, one ending and one beginning. Did she wonder where they went ­Amil, Nisha, Papa, Dadi, and Kazi? Or had she somehow traveled with them?
Maybe she was just gone, like the way a cloud moved across the sky, changing into something else and eventually disappearing into the atmosphere. He hoped she did watch over them, though. He wanted to show her what it had been like after everything happened, the way Nisha kept a diary written to her

Veera Hiranandani

Praise for Amil and The After
Amazon's Best Book of the Month (January 2024)


a masterpiece of nuance, vulnerability, and emotional complexity. A quietly brilliant, deeply insightful story of living in uncertain times.
Kirkus Reviews, starred review

Searingly emotional the fast-paced, multifaceted plot will keep readers engaged while bringing them to a satisfying resolution. Booklist, starred review

A tender companion to [Hiranandani s] 2019 Newbery Honor-winning The Night Diary compelling. Shelf Awareness, starred review 

Veera Hiranandani masterfully presents a powerful, unvarnished examination of difficult subject matter while paving the way forward with hope and love. BookPage, starred review 

Hiranandani effortlessly incorporates the tastes, sights, sounds, and history of India in engaging prose Accessible and engrossing, readers unfamiliar with the historic partition of India and Pakistan will nevertheless readily relate to a boy s yearning for stability in tumultuous times. A first purchase for all middle grade collections. School Library Journal, starred review


Masterly a book about hope, about a boy and his father, both hurt and vulnerable, navigating their traumas and finally surviving apart and then together. New York Times Book Review

"Fans of the previous title will appreciate this compassionate and thoughtful continuation of the family s story, while new readers can experience Amil s account of hope and survivor guilt as a standalone volume. " --- The Horn Book Magazine