Anita and Me, which has been compared to To Kill a Mockingbird, tells the story of Meena, the daughter of the only Punjabi family in the British village of Tollington. With great warmth and humor, Meera Syal brings to life a quirky, spirited 1960s mining town and creates in her protagonist what the Washington Post calls a "female Huck Finn." The novel follows nine-year-old Meena through a year spiced with pilfered sweets and money, bad words, and compulsive, yet inventive, lies. Anita and Me offers a fresh, sassy look at a childhood caught between two cultures.

Meera Syal, a British-born Indian, is a writer and actress who is a familiar face on British TV. She has written a number of successful TV and film scripts, including Bhaji on the Beach and the multi-award-winning My Sister Wife, in which she also starred. She co-writes and stars in the British hit comedy series Goodness Gracious Me, which was nominated for an international Emmy and was awarded the MBE in 1998. She also performed in the star-studded London production of The Vagina Monologues. Her first novel, Anita and Me, won a Betty Trask Award and was shortlisted for the Guardian Fiction Prize. She lives in London.