If a life is lived across many homes—from balmy Chennai to muggy Mumbai, the crackling expansiveness of Delhi to the breathtaking splendour of Vancouver in spring—where do you truly belong? If you are constantly on the move, is home just what Customs can clear? And how do you find love, in the middle of it all, when you do not or cannot stay in one city long enough?

Funny, poignant and reflective, The Weight of a Cherry Blossom is a fable of rootlessness and belonging in the modern world. It is equal parts a story of urban loneliness and self-discovery, and of the healing powers of kinship and love. Revisiting the awkwardness of adolescence and the chaos of growing up, it looks the foibles of adulthood irreverently in the eye.

Tracing the powerful patterns of family, friendship, storytelling, fear, love and loss from her childhood to the teetering end of her twenties, Shruti Buddhavarapu takes you through the embarrassing yet affirming adventures of a life lived with one’s heart on one’s sleeve—through illness, despair and joy.