A Girl Within a Girl Within a Girl

Reddy debuts with a powerful story of resilience and reinvention. Maya’s suburban Atlanta idyll is exposed as a house of cards when her husband finds a letter in the mail addressed to her as Sunny. In flashbacks, Reddy reveals how in 1985, a 12-year-old Maya, then going by her birth name, Sunny, was smuggled from Guyana to Miami under the name Neena, the deceased daughter of her adoptive parents, Lila and Prem. The couple resent Sunny for the unexpected fees they’re charged by the smuggler and force her to work off the debt as a cleaner for the Parkers, a white family. Sunny finds solace with the friendly Parkers until Prem rapes her. Traumatized, she self-medicates with alcohol and drugs, reinventing herself first as Cindy, the name on the ID she found at a club, and then as Synthia, the stage name she takes when she starts stripping. It isn’t until she becomes a legal resident that she officially becomes Maya, launches a career as a dental hygienist, and settles down with her husband and children. Reddy capably raises the stakes at every turn, giving readers ample reason to root for Maya by highlighting the desperation behind her ruthless self-reliance. This satisfies. Agent: Sarah Bedingfield, Levine Greenberg Rostan. (Mar.)