“A rich family saga about art and memory's power to inform the present, make peace with the past, and maybe even alter the future.” — Celeste Ng, New York Times bestselling author of Our Missing Hearts A heartrending family saga following three generations of women connected by a fantastic tapestry, sweeping readers from Partition-era India to modern day Brooklyn. Ayukta is finally sitting down with her wife Nadya to respond to a question she’s long avoided: Should they have a child? The decision is complicated by a secret her family has kept for centuries, one that Ayukta will be the first to share with someone outside their bloodline: the women in her family inherit a mysterious tapestry, through which each generation can experience the memories of those who came before her. Ayukta invites Nadya into this lineage, carrying her through its past. She relives her grandmother Amla’s life: Once a happy child in Karachi, Amla migrates to Gujarat during Partition, witnessing violence and loss that forever shape her approach to marriage and motherhood. Amla’s daughter, Arni, bears this weight in her own blood in 1974, when gender equity and urban class distinctions divide the community as a bold student movement takes hold. As Ayukta unspools these generations of women—whole decades of love, loss, heartbreak, and revival—she reveals the tapestry’s second gift: the ability for each of these women to dramatically reshape their own worlds. Like all power, both fantastic and societal, this inheritance is more treacherous than it seems. What would it mean, to impart an impossible burden? To withhold these incredible gifts? Sweeping, deeply felt and intergenerational, A Thousand Times Before is a debut as poetic as it is propulsive, as healing as it is heartbreaking, as it examines what it means to carry our past with us and to pass it on. Rooted in a tender love story, and spun with a tremendous amount of care, this book is a rare, remarkable feat from an incredible new literary talent. WINNER OF THE BALCONES PRIZE 2025 ONE OF NPR'S BOOKS WE LOVE 2024 A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR WITH THE BOSTON GLOBE "A sweeping, moving saga." — People Magazine "An intricate and heartbreaking novel...beautifully captures the warmth of sisterhood and the bonds that women share...It's a story that you want to share with your loved ones." — NPR “This multigenerational tale starts during the 1948 partition of India and Pakistan and continues to the present-day United States, where women in one family connect and access memories through an inherited tapestry.” — The Boston Globe “Spanning three generations, Asha Thanki's captivating debut explores the legacies mothers pass on to their daughters--and the complicated responsibilities that accompany them. A Thousand Times Before is a rich family saga about art and memory's power to inform the present, make peace with the past, and maybe even alter the future.” — Celeste Ng, New York Times bestselling author of Our Missing Hearts “ A Thousand Times Before is a sweeping, emotionally powerful tale set against a backdrop of geopolitical strife, a novel about nothing less than self-determination, national identity and ancestral traumas.” — Minneapolis Star-Tribune "A powerful tale of mothers and daughters that spans India across generations, A Thousand Times Before by Asha Thanki beautifully illustrates the ripple effect our choices make." — Real Simple “Glorious prose creates a grand…sweep of facts, fantasy, and intriguing characters.” — Kirkus “An expansive and rich novel about generations of a family tackling love and grief. Thanki’s writing is beautiful and soft. She takes great care of her characters and readers in this debut.” — Debutiful “This book is enlightening, touching, and deeply important.” — Screenrant “Thanki threads her saga with rich themes, including mother-daughter tensions, the burden of inheritance, and the power of art. Readers won’t want this to end.” — Publisher's Weekly , *starred review* "In expertly crafted prose, Thanki reinvents generational memory, conjuring inheritance as a tapestry of love, trauma, and choices that echo through blood. The memories within wormed their way under my skin and made me reflect about the collective of past lives that reside within all of us. A profoundly tender and complex debut that I didn't want to put down." — Sequoia Nagamatsu, bestselling author of How High We Go in the Dark “Thanki’s debut novel captures a multigenerational family shaped by the 1947 Partition and its bloodstained legacy. Featuring a queer couple at its center—and a queer ancestor and her forbidden lover in South Asia—the novel traces a tapestry that connects three generations of women as they navigate life in South Asia and America.” — Electric Literature "Asha Thanki’s compelling debut speaks to themes of loss, connection, inheritance and agency. Centering on a beautiful tapestry and a generations-old