Girls of the Mahabharata 1: The One Who Swam with the Fish by Meenakshi Reddy Madhavan

Retellings of the Mahabharata often succumb to the temptation of reversing the gaze and providing a noble patina to their protagonists. Meenakshi Reddy Madhavan, though, bravely reimagines the story and the inner life of the fisher-maiden Satyavati before her arrival into the epic, before she changes the future of the Kuru dynasty. 

This is the story of Satyavati, who grows up to be the matriarch of the Kuru family. Meenakshi Reddy Madhavan, though, bravely reimagines the story and the inner life of the fisher-maiden Satyavati before her arrival into the epic, before she changes the future of the Kuru dynasty. Married early to Shantanu, a king who is more than twice her age, she learns to deal with courtly life with all its glamour and intrigue a far cry from her small fishing community. She is called upon to fill in the shoes of the mysterious Ganga and forms an odd friendship with her stepson Bheeshma, as he teaches her how to handle herself in a world she is completely ill-equipped for. But Satyavati has secrets of her own too.