[1] Sanyal grew up in Korokdi, now in Faridpur Bangladesh, in a decaying zamindar family that had once been indigo planters, and was to become a member of the Communist Party of India.
Its heroine, Chhobi, is a young girl from a rural zamindar family in Bengal of the 1930s, and the book follows her as she learns to fight injustice, protest against the privileges denied her but granted to her brothers, and the restrictions of the patriarchal society around her.
Much of the story mirrors Sanyal's own life, for she was born into a similar family, educated briefly in Chittagong, went for undergraduate studies at the Scottish Church College, where she became involved in politics during the Bengal Famine.
On 21 January 1947, following a police assault, she was arrested along with her college friends Anjana Guha and Anima Ghosh, and that put an end to formal education.
Sanyal also wrote a collection of short stories, Sindure Megh (Clouds Tinged with Red).