Archive · 6 Oct 2026
Ava’s Enchanted Heirloom Returns in an Extinction Fiction Excerpt
Ava is thinking about painful memories from long ago.
The story takes us back to 1958, when she lived in Rajkot with her family.
Her dog, Chotu, digs up a little silver box in the garden.
Ava takes the box and hides it in her dressing table.
She also has a tiger that appears to her and can be sent to an imagined forest.
The dressing table is a family heirloom made from teak wood.
Ava thinks about how her family and life have changed.
This passage comes from Leeya Mehta’s novel Extinction.
The excerpt follows Ava as she revisits memories from her childhood and family life.
In February 1958, Ava finds a small silver box after her dog Chotu digs it up.
Ava hides the box in a dressing table that is also a place where she keeps her tiger.
Ava’s tiger appears to her as a spirit-like presence, which she can send to an imagined habitat.
The passage is from Leeya Mehta’s novel Extinction, published by Simon & Schuster India.
- Who
- Ava, her dog Chotu, and her family are featured in the excerpt.
- What
- Ava finds a small silver box that Chotu has dug up and hides it in her dressing table.
- When
- The recalled events take place in February 1958; the excerpt also frames Ava reflecting on them later.
- Where
- Rajkot, Gujarat, India.
- Why
- The excerpt does not explain why the box was buried or why Chotu finds it.
- Work
- Extinction
- Author
- Leeya Mehta
- Publisher
- Simon & Schuster India
- Setting of recalled events
- Rajkot, Gujarat
- Date of recalled events
- February 1958
- Heirloom
- A small silver box