In 2002, Scholastic released Born Confused, a groundbreaking work—the first–ever South 
Asian young adult novel. Twelve years later, its anticipated sequel, Bombay Blues, was just released. Today on OOM we are celebrating the books by acclaimed author Tanuja Desai Hidier. Bombay Blues (on sale date: 8/26/14; Push Fiction; ages 14 and up) explores everything this generation faces today, with a heavy mix of uncertainty and determination, despair and inspiration, haunting loss, and revelatory love. In a starred review, Kirkus raved about the new book and said, “Hidier quietly revolutionized YA literature with Born Confused; this sequel indicates she’s intent on a repeat. Dense, lyrical full of neologic portmanteaus and wordplay: this is a prose-poem, meditation on love, family, and homecoming posing as a novel…a journey worth making…” and also ran a feature story on the author’s inspiration for Bombay Blues.
Not only is Tanuja a celebrated author, she is also a
singer-songwriter. Bombay Spleen, her album which is a “booktrack” to Bombay Blues, contains songs inspired by the novel. Check out the music video for the song Heptanesia featuring rock star author/singer Tanuja Desai Hidier:
