Dark Rainbow, a debut novel by a young author, Naina Gupta, an Indian native who currently lives in Dubai, is a fantasy grounded in reality, loaded with humour and sarcasm. It delves into the psyche of the protagonist Ernaline Volkov, 16, as she wanders around the locales of New York city trying to unearth secrets about her mother, Dalia Volkov. ‘Earth is getting torn apart with no actual cause,’ writes the author in the Prologue. Set in troubled times, this ominous presentiment is extrapolated in the plot where darkness festers, reason fails and truth is often overwritten. Rife with cryptic messages, code names, secret passages and libraries, Dark Rainbow is packed with mystery and mayhem.
August 2023, volume 47, No 8