THREE WOMEN, from diverse strata of Goan life, meet up in Belinda Viegas's new novel "The Cry Of The Kingfisher", and its story raises crucial issues which confront today's Goa in the midst of all its change, uncertainity and pressures. Mayola is the returned expat from Africa. Succorina is a village girl. Donna has been brought up affluent in the UK.

Set mainly in the verdant, sunshiny land of Goa, 'The Cry Of The Kingfisher' is a warm and inspiring tale of hope and courage. It deals with the inner and outer forces in life that break, and make, three different women.

Mayola's sheltered, duty bound life is ripped apart when her gorgeous, tempestuous older sister Zarella, in whose shadow she has grown, is mysteriously found drowned. All her training in medicine and psychiatry cannot help her as she grapples with the sudden emptiness of her life.

Angry despair spurs her on a quest for meaning which brings her in contact with Donna and Succorina. Succorina is a village girl, born to superstition, ignorance and the disaster of being the fourth daughter instead of the long awaited son. Her attempts to break out of her poverty-stricken existence take her as a housemaid to Kuwait, through a distressing abortion and a failed marriage. No longer able to deal with the cruel twists and turns her life has taken, her mind begins to crack.

Donna is the proverbial 'poor little rich girl', brought up in England, showered with everything except love. She turns punk, sinking deeper into chaos and bewilderment as her hopes of finding love and acceptance start crumbling under an explosion of fears that threaten her very existence. Yet, when Mayola's path intersects with these two kindered souls, they embark on a journey of self-realisation, unraveling the painfully tangled strands of fears -- and dreams waiting to be realized. She watches in admiring delight as they bravely set out to uproot the malediction -- and hope gushes out.

Obviously, its author's own understanding of the local reality go into crafting her understanding of the pressures facing half and more of Goa today.

Nairobi-born Dr. Belinda Viegas is a practising psychiatrist from Salcete. She recalls a childhood in Kenya filled with picnics, fishing and trips into the wild-life sanctuaries. Returning to India, she schooled in Belgaum and then did her MBBS at St John's Medical College in Bangalore, winning two gold medals.

She did her M.D. in Psychiatry from NIMHANS, the prestigious National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences, at Bangalore. While there, she got introduced to rock-climbing and trekking, and later rejoined St. John's as a lecturer in Psychiatry and continued to organise treks for the students and staff.

While doing the Mt. Everest Base Camp trek in Nepal she met her husband Richard. Marriage took her to Germany, where her children were born and where she also started writing. Their young family returned to Goa, and she began practice in Varca. They had a brief stint in Australia, and are now back in Goa, balancing psychiatry, child-rearing, cycling, sailing and occasional trekking trips.

Litterateur and author of the widely-recognised 'Goa: A Daughter's Story' Dr Maria Aurora Couto called the new book: "An honest and courageous exploration of complexities of the human mind using fictional modes..."