The Fabric Goddesses | Rochelle Potkar

The lives of three women are strung together by a brown coat, as it moves from the factory floors in Bengaluru to the sweatshops of Dhaka and to the dazzling runways of New York traversing the path of global fashion. In New York, Adharshini Shenoy — a young model chasing size-zero perfection pushes her body to fit the world of big brands. In Dhaka, Beli Rahman works long hours in sweatshop silence, sewing clothes to support her children and to survive. And in Bengaluru, Gita Hangal struggles to complete her interrupted education and get a job promotion, while managing the bond with her son — a child born of violence. This powerful saga reveals a story of resilience, survival, and transformation against the landscape of global fashion where fabric meets flesh and trauma triumph, as a journey of interconnectedness unfolds.

Rochelle writes with the dexterity of a seasoned storyteller, creating unforgettable characters, crafting memorable tales. The Fabric Goddesses is a compelling novel that is richly textured and impressively nuanced. - Anees Salim

The Fabric Goddesses with its exquisitely written inventive prose, excellent plotting and deeply empathetic portrayal of its main characters heralds the arrival of a refreshingly powerful voice on the firmament of the Indian literary world. Rochelle captures the internal conflicts of her three socio-culturally diverse protagonists with such an efficacy that no one will believe that it is her sophomore novel. - Abdullah Khan