An Impossible Woman
About this ebook
Her art changed history.
Paris, 1930. Amrita Sher-Gil arrives at the École des Beaux-Arts – its youngest student, its first Indian – and begins painting canvases that will change art history. Brilliant, vivacious and utterly ungovernable, she tears through Paris society, leaving a trail of lovers, masterpieces and scandals in her wake.
But when she returns home to India, she finds herself caught between worlds. Painting its ordinary people with revolutionary honesty, while fighting poverty, censure and her own restless heart, Amrita is neither of the east nor the west. And more than anything, Amrita craves recognition. Can she tame her affairs with some of the most influential men of the time, while winning the acclaim she's sure she deserves?
Based on the extraordinary true – and tragic – story of one of India's greatest painters, An Impossible Woman is a novel about the price of genius, the hunger of ambition, and what it costs a woman to live entirely on her own terms.
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About the author
Reeta Chakrabarti is a journalist and broadcaster who is a Chief Presenter for BBC News, and has also reported extensively at home and abroad for the BBC. Born in London, she was brought up in Birmingham. She lived in Calcutta, India, as a teenager where she attended Calcutta International School before returning to the UK for university. She began working for the BBC in 1992 and has been there in various roles for over 30 years. She has previously been a judge for the 2021 David Cohen Prize for Literature; she was the chair of the 2021 Costa Book of the Year; and in 2023 chair of the BBC National Short Story Award. Reeta lives in London with her husband and has three children. Finding Belle, her debut novel, was published in 2025. An Impossible Woman is her highly anticipated second novel.
