Publicity Contact:
Kendra Newton, 212-207-7886
Kendra.Newton@harpercollins.com

“The intimate portrait the novel offers of India at this specific point in its history is compelling, as is the dramatic relationship between Charu and the deeply troubled Moira.”
   — Booklist

“Currimbhoy’s fiction debut is an absorbing atmospheric thriller. . . . [A] gripping tale.”
   — Publishers Weekly

“An irresistible novel that hurls forward at breathtaking speed toward an unpredictable climax.”
  — Thrity Umrigar, bestselling author of The Space Between Us and The Weight of Heaven

Harper Paperbacks is thrilled to introduce Nayana Currimbhoy’s MISS TIMMINS’ SCHOOL FOR GIRLS (Harper Paperbacks; Trade Paperback Original; On Sale: June 21, 2011; $14.99), a dazzling debut novel that is part coming-of-age story, part murder mystery, set in India during the monsoon season of 1974.  

Three weeks shy of her 21st birthday, Charu Apte, a conventional girl rendered “unmarriagable” in the wake of a scandal that shamed her Brahmin family, leaves her cloistered home to teach English literature at a remote boarding school in Panchgani. Founded in 1902 for the education of British Civil Servants’ daughters whose health was too delicate for the plains, Miss Timmins’ is still run like an outpost of the Empire. Seventy years later though, it now caters to the daughters of rich Indian businessmen from Bombay.

By day Charu shares shrewsberry biscuits and tea with the school’s British missionaries and teaches Macbeth to a hothouse of privileged Indian girls; by night she finds herself drawn to the troubled, charismatic Moira Prince, a fellow teacher harboring secrets of her own. Charu soon finds herself among Moira’s band of pot-smoking bohemians reveling in this new era of freedom and self-expression. 

Then, one monsoon night, a body is found at the base of the cliffs that surround Panchgani, sending shockwaves through the intricately layered community.  When Charu finds herself a prime suspect for murder, her real education begins. Ultimately, MISS TIMMINS’ SCHOOL FOR GIRLS is the tale of a shy young woman who starts out seeking love and ends up finding freedom against all odds and under a most unusual set of circumstances. 

Drawing inspiration from her childhood to create this vivid real life setting, Currimbhoy tells a suspenseful story that is both tender and funny. The rock and roll soundtrack and the exuberant optimism of the hippie days familiar to American readers spring to life in a small town in India in this summer’s must-read novel.     

About the Author
Nayana grew up and attended boarding school in India before moving to the United States in the early eighties. She lives in New York City with her husband and their teenage daughter. This is her first novel.

Miss Timmins’ School for Girls
Harper Paperbacks
Trade Paperback Original
On Sale: June 21, 2011
$14.99/ 512 Pages
ISBN: 9780061997747

ADDITIONAL PRAISE FOR
MISS TIMMINS’ SCHOOL FOR GIRLS

 “Beautifully written, atmospheric and very funny. Ms. Currimbhoy’s debut novel contains entire worlds. I couldn’t put it down.”
   — Gary Shteyngart, bestselling author of Super Sad True Love Story 

“Exotic, mysterious, and haunting, Nayana Currimbhoy’s MISS TIMMINS’ SCHOOL FOR GIRLS kept me up far too late for some delicious, spooky reading nights. The characters are as real and flawed as they are endearing and heartbreaking. They seeped into my heart and under my skin as insistently as I could imagine the relentless monsoon rains curling the pages of the book and dampening every item in my room. I adored this book.”    
— Katrina Kittle, author of The Kindness of Strangers and The Blessings of the Animals

The Indo-American Arts Council is a 501 ©3 not-for-profit arts organization passionately dedicated to promoting, showcasing and building an awareness of artists of Indian origin in the performing arts, visual arts, literary arts and folk arts. For information please visit

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