Burnt Sugar delves into the tumultuous relationship between Antara and her mother, Tara. In her youth, Tara was a figure of rebellion, leaving behind her arranged marriage to follow a spiritual guru and a bohemian lifestyle, with young Antara in her unsteady wake. Tara's actions, driven by spite and a quest for freedom, leave deep scars on Antara's psyche. Now, as an adult and an artist herself, Antara grapples with the complexities of caring for her aging mother, whose erratic memory forces Antara to confront the past that still haunts her. Wielding prose that cuts with precision and imbued with dark humor, Avni Doshi's novel questions the reliability of memory and the bonds that define us.