Girls Burn Brighter by Shobha Rao

Poornima and Savitha, born in poverty, have known little kindess in their lives until they meet at teernagers.  When an act of devastating cruelty drives Savitha away, Poornima leaves behind everything she has ever known to find her friend.

Alternating between the girl's perpective as they face apparently unsurmountable obstacles on their travels through the darkest corners of India's underworld and across the ocean, Girls Burn Brighter introduces two heroines who refuse to lose the hope that bruns within.