The Girls Who Bled Blue
A contemporary Indian Novel on Love, Identity and Belonging, set in the world of cricket
Cover Illustration and Design: Solanki Halder
Simran Singh is a prodigy – and a trans woman playing in the Indian men’s team. Tanya Jamir is her childhood friend and now her spouse who plays for the Indian women’s team. From school grounds to international stadiums, their love and courage are tested under the glare of a nation where cricket is religion and identity a battlefield.
Sustained by generations of family and mentors, their story weaves personal truth with social change. It moves from the sound of leather on willow to the quiet thrum of a heart finding its place in the world.
A novel about belonging, visibility, and the price of honesty, The Girls Who Bled Blue asks what it means to grow up queer in a world shifting beneath our feet, and to claim one’s name beneath a sky of floodlights.
Advance Praise for the Book
“A defiant journey of love and acceptance set in the high-stakes world of Indian cricket,The Girls Who Bled Blue is a romance that is both tender and tough – a celebration of queer love that does not shy away from the cost of living in one’s truth.”
Chandrima Das
From the Author:
“Once I had the idea for these two protagonists, I realised I first had to answer my own question: how could people like this even exist? That led me to think less about ‘exceptional’ individuals, and more about the ecosystems – families, schools, friendships, mentors – that quietly make certain lives possible.”
About the Author:
Chitra Mathur is a Mumbai-based writer, teacher, and mother. An alumna of IIT Bombay and IIM Ahmedabad, and a queer trans woman, she draws on years of research and lived experience in her writing.
The Girls Who Bled Blue is her first novel.
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The Girls Who Bled Blue 