400 Days
SynopsisPlot
12-year-old Siya has been missing nine months. It’s a cold case, but Keshav wants to help her mother, Alia, who refuses to give up. Welcome to 400 Days―a mystery and romance story like no other. ‘My daughter Siya was kidnapped. Nine months ago,’ Alia said. The police had given up. They called it a cold case. Even the rest of her family had stopped searching. Alia wouldn’t stop looking, though. She wanted to know if I could help her.
Story
About this book
Twelve-year-old Siya has been missing for nine months. The police have classified her disappearance as a cold case, and most of her family has moved on. But her mother, Alia, has not stopped searching. She turns to Keshav, hoping he can help where others have given up. The title refers to the span of time that shapes the story, a window in which leads grow stale and hope becomes harder to sustain.
Chetan Bhagat sets the book in India and builds it around two overlapping threads: a missing-child mystery and a developing connection between Keshav and Alia. The plot follows Keshav as he tries to piece together what happened to Siya, working against fading evidence and the reluctance of those who consider the case closed. Alia's refusal to accept the official verdict drives the investigation forward.
Bhagat is one of India's highest-selling English-language novelists, known for stories set in contemporary Indian life and written in accessible, direct prose. 400 Days blends suspense with personal stakes, centering much of its tension on a parent's determination and the question of whether persistence alone can reopen a trail that others have abandoned.
