" Humane and important"

— Guardian best paperbacks of the month

“Partition Voices is probably the closest thing to a partition memorial … Heartfelt and beautifully judged.’’

— John Keay Literary Review

“Kavita Puri's book is the most humane account of partition I've read. Partition Voices is important because Puri does not flinch as she dissects the tumultuous event, never shying away from the trauma . We need a candid conversation about our past and this is an essential starting point.’

—-Nikesh Shukla Observer

“Opens a fascinating and necessary conversation about contemporary Britain and its people – where they have come from, what they have done, and who they may now want to be.”

— Anjali Joseph Times Literary Supplement

“In the case of Partition, there has long been a veil of silence. Thanks to Ms. Puri and others, that silence is giving way to inquisitive—and assertive—voices. In Britain, at least, the partitioned have learned to speak frankly of the past—and to search for ways to reckon with it.”

— Tunku Varadarajan Wall Street Journal

“An original and moving collection of testimonies from British Sikhs, Muslims and Hindus about the transformative era of India's partition.”

— 50 Best Books of the Summer, Guardian

“This collection reveals how families are still impacted generations down the line and is a crucial read for understanding South Asian history”

— Cosmopolitan

“Confronts the difficult truths at the heart of Britain’s shared – and often ignored – shared history with South Asia”

— Stylist Best non-fiction books of 2019

“A poignant account of unbearable journeys and unimaginable loss”

— Elle (India)

“This is moving, thought-provoking stuff”

— BBC History Magazine, Book of the Month

“Puri’s excellent book is a welcome antidote to British amnesia over its colonial legacy. Partition is not just an Indian story, it is a British one too”

— All About History

“Partition Voices takes its place alongside other valuable books on partition such as Khushwant Singh's Train to Pakistan and Urvashi Butalia's The Other Side of Silence.”

— Amit Roy Eastern Eye

“Through Partition Voices, Puri discusses the human cost of division and brings to the forefront the unheard voices of South Asia that are imperative in understanding the national British history.’.”

— Priyanka Mehta Asian Voice

“An important document of those turbulent times — raw and unbiased.”

— Bishwanath Ghosh The Hindu

“An important milestone in the Partition project because it ascribes importance to the British-South Asian dynamic and talks about the shared history of these two nations without villainising or glorifying either side....and looks at their accounts as human experiences, wrapped in love, hate, betrayal, revenge, loss and longing.”

— Anodya Mishra, Scroll

“An evocative book that leaves you breathless with its human predicament and gives voice to stories long held prisoner to silence ... Nobody has ever brought out the stories of South Asians now settled in the United Kingdom ... Kudos to Kavita Puri for documenting Partition's lasting legacy in Britain, an irony in itself. It is a unique book, one that lives with you long after the stories end .”

— Ziya Us Salam Frontline Magazine

“A valuable collection … Puri’s book makes us aware of the necessity of social histories...and its (Britain’s) unfinished business of adding the Partition chapter to school syllabi.”

— Rumina Sethi, Tribune (India)

“This is an important, interesting and elegantly written book…Their voices are not just a part of South Asian History, but also British history.”

— Professor Ramesh Thakur, Australian Journal of International Affairs

“As a nation, we often forget what was done in the name of creating the largest empire in human history. But one of the tragic elements of this amnesia occurs around Partition. Puri does profound and elegant work bringing forgotten narratives back to life. It’s hard to convey just how important this book is’.”

— Sathnam Sanghera, author Empireland

‘This is an essential book, remarkable in its reach and power. It brings the difficulty of how we pass on stories across generations into a moving and beautiful focus. Partition Voices is a book of witness and testimony that should have the widest readership possible.’

— Edmund de Waal, author The Hare With the Amber Eyes

‘‘With a masterful mix of history, biography and contemporary reportage, Puri crafts a fascinating account of the living memory of South Asia in modern Britain. This book brings together a rich and disparate chronicle of lives ripped apart and remade by the trauma of partition, and deftly traces how the diaspora of post-colonial India and Pakistan helped to reshape the UK. Perceptive, enriching, shocking and joyful, Puri's is a powerful and courageous book for multicultural Britain.”

— Tristram Hunt Director, Victoria & Albert Museum

“A powerful and timely work. Kavita Puri coaxes often unspeakable and unspoken memories from a time of unimaginable trauma. A must-read for those interested in the fault lines in today's geopolitics.”

— Anita Anand, author The Patient Assassin

Kavita Puri’s Partition Voices is a unique and powerful work, combining a depth of oral history with the most sensitive story-telling. It is one of a kind in a burgeoning field of partition studies because it places Britain so squarely as a site in which partition has continued to unfurl since 1947, prising it loose from its subcontinental moorings. This was an inspired move, and one that inspired many to engage with the past. This new edition shows, in its Coda, through new stories of her readers, why it is so necessary to teach this history as part of British history. She encourages even more powerfully the value of discussion over silence, of reconnection across borders and across pasts.

— Professor Joya Chatterji, author The Spoils of Partition, Bengal and India 1947-1967

“Powerful, compelling and heartbreaking - these are stories of division and conflict rescued from the past that offer valuable lessons for the present.”

— Sarfraz Manzoor, author They: What Muslims and Non-Muslims Get Wrong About Each Other

“The most extraordinary book. The prologue already had me in tears. This is history - often being told out loud for the very first time …The book of 2019 that opened my eyes more than anything else. Seminal work, beautifully told.”

— Emily Maitlis

“An intimate, moving and important book by a daughter of partition. Kavita Puri reveals untold stories of those who lived through one of the most violent political earthquakes of the twentieth century. These are stories we need to hear.”

— Kirsty Wark

“An amazing, deeply moving book.”

— Dan Snow presenter History Hit podcast

“An important book ... changed the way I see the world.” 

–  Jeremy Vine