Hemera Nayantara has spent most of her life trying to disappear – shadowed by a childhood of silence and sorrow, and a past she could never name without trembling. When she leaves home for college, it’s meant to be an escape. But what begins as running away slowly becomes a journey of becoming.
And when a letter from home forces her to face everything she thought she left behind, she finds herself at a crossroads: keep running, or finally choose to stay; and live.
Spanning years, cities, and the intimate, often invisible work of healing, Rising Sun is a deeply felt debut about girlhood, grief, and the long journey back to yourself. For anyone who’s ever tried to start over, this is a story of what it means to survive, to feel, and to grow – one sunrise at a time.