The Name on Her Palm

A daughter follows three letters written on her mother's palm to find the father she's never known.

The Name on Her Palm is a novel by Indian author Parvind Kumar about a mother's forgotten night and a daughter's search for the truth. Twenty years after a New Year's Eve party she barely remembers, Aisha discovers she's pregnant with no way of knowing who the father is — and raises her daughter Naira alone, under the judgment of a society quick to condemn her.

Now twenty years old and tired of leaving her father's name blank on every form, Naira begins investigating that lost night with Kabir, the man who has loved her since childhood — old photographs, forgotten guests, a failed police investigation, and finally, three letters written on her mother's palm: VCS.

The clue leads to a successful businessman in New York who notices something familiar in Naira's face he can't explain. The novel follows what happens when three letters and an old memory try to answer, twenty years late, a question that never stopped mattering.