The Moneylender's Daughter

Originally by Munshi Premchand

Reimagined from the vantage point of Sophia

"She wanted to save the fallen women. They didn't need saving."

Sevasadan follows Suman, a woman pushed toward prostitution by poverty. Sophia, the reformer's daughter, tries to 'save' her. But this reimagining asks: What happens when the savior realizes she understands nothing about the lives she's trying to fix?

Pages

310

Print Price

$22.99

Kindle Price

$8.99

Genre

Literary Fiction

Why This Vantage Point

Premchand's first Hindi novel deals with themes explosively relevant today: the savior complex, class privilege in social work, and who gets to define 'fallen.'

Read an Excerpt

The Original

"The world does not forgive a woman who stumbles, even if it pushed her."

— Munshi Premchand, Sevasadan

The Reimagined — Sophia's Voice

I went to the kotha with pamphlets and prayers, certain that God had sent me to rescue these women. Suman looked at my pamphlets and laughed — not cruelly, but with the exhaustion of someone who has been rescued before. 'Tell me, Sophia,' she said, 'when you save me, where will I go? Your father's house? Your church? Will they let my son play with your children?' I had no answer. I had never needed one before. Saving people, I was discovering, is easy when you never have to live with them afterward.

Ready to hear the other side?

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