A letter, a mystery and 3 generations: Inside Atima Mankotia's latest book

What begins with a mysterious box and an enigmatic letter soon pulls Sanya into a family mystery spanning three generations of women in Atima Mankotia’s All That She Left Behind.

Atima Mankotia unveiled her latest book on Sunday, expressing her gratitude to those who supported her ambition, as well as the inspiration behind the storyline.

The novel follows Sanya after the death of her formidable grandmother, Saudamini Malviya, who leaves behind more than wealth and grief. Among her belongings are a box containing strange objects and a letter urging Sanya to search for someone who has long been believed to be dead. As she follows the clues, Sanya begins to uncover a hidden family secret that stretches back to pre-Independence India.

Moving between the past and present, the story traces the tangled lives of Saudamini, her daughter Anusuya and Sanya, revealing buried secrets, hidden identities and the choices that shaped the three generations of women.

At its core, the novel explores what gets passed down through families - not just possessions and genes, but memories, beliefs, trauma and ways of thinking.

Speaking at the book launch, Mankotia reflected on this idea of inheritance and how womanhood changes from one generation to the next. “We inherit our habits, our beliefs, and many times our way of thinking,” she said, adding that the challenge lies in figuring out what we want to keep and what we want to leave behind.

Mankotia pointed out that some inheritances, such as resilience, are ones we can be grateful for, while others, including anxiety and stress, may be things we would rather not carry forward. But, she said, we do not always have a choice over what we inherit.

She also spoke about things that cannot easily be explained through genetics. A woman may inherit physical traits from her grandmother, but genes cannot explain the moments when she suddenly hears her mother’s voice coming through her own, saying the same words.

The conversation also touched on generational trauma, particularly the experiences passed down among women. Mankotia said it was important for each generation to recognise these patterns and prevent them from being carried into the next.

For her, the women in her own family had managed to break that cycle. “They have stopped it right there,” she said, referring to her grandmothers, mother and other women in her family.

And that question sits at the heart of All That She Left Behind: when we inherit a past we did not choose, what parts of it do we carry with us, and what do we finally leave behind?