<p>Seema Choudhry and Madhu Gupta, one Muslim, the other a Hindu, are</p><p>the best of friends. Both live in Old Delhi, only a few dense, narrow lanes</p><p>apart, but in worlds that rarely meet. And yet, the worlds are very similar</p><p>in the demands they make of women, especially young women like Seema</p><p>and Madhu-they should settle down soon after puberty, married to men</p><p>of the same faith, caste and class, chosen by their elders. But in the early</p><p>years of the twenty-first century, change is creeping in. When the two girls</p><p>find employment in a factory in Noida, across the Yamuna, their worlds</p><p>expand-a little at first, and then radically. Their lives will be transformed in</p><p>unexpected ways by ambition and, in Seema's case, by the love of the other-</p><p>the son of her bigoted Hindu employer.</p><p>Written in effortless, clear-as-glass prose, Across the River is a hugely engaging</p><p>exploration of the tension between tradition and modernity, and an equally</p><p>sensitive examination of both the rigidity and the fragility of religious</p><p>prejudice.</p><p></p><p></p>