Top

We have updated our Privacy Policy Please take a moment to review it. By continuing to use this site, you agree to the terms of our updated Privacy Policy.

The Rice Mother

On sale

13th May 2010

Price: £10.99

Select a format

Selected: ebook / ISBN-13: 9781444712193

Disclosure: If you buy products using the retailer buttons above, we may earn a commission from the retailers you visit.

A compelling glimpse into a captivatingly exotic world of myth and magic.

Beguiled by promises of wealth, fourteen-year-old Lakshmi leaves her native Ceylon for Malaya and marriage to a man many years her senior. But Ayah has lied to her and her family about his circumstances and in fact he lives in poverty. A woman of formidable energy and intelligence, Lakshmi provides security, if not luxury, for her family, though at a considerable emotional cost. Then the Japanese army invades during WWII.

The family bears deep scars and inflicts those wounds on the next generation. But in Nisha, Lakshmi’s great-granddaughter, it is as if Fate has come full circle . . .

What's Inside

Read More Read Less

Reviews

Elizabeth Buchan, <i>Times Play</i>
It would be difficult not to be seduced by . . . the intriguing mixture of myth, religion and superstition . . . there is a freedom and freshness in the manner in which the author explores the interior life of her characters whose idiosyncrasies and many failings are sympathetically and sometimes humorously observed . . . It possesses a genuine intimacy and passionate involvement.
<i>Glamour</i>
You'll struggle to find a more powerful, moving read this year.
<i>Heat</i>
Emotionally satisfying, complex books like this are harder to find.
<i>Image Magazine</i>
I simply didn't want it to end . . . The characters themselves, with their resolute individualism, ultimately seem larger than either the superbly drawn historical background or the novel's exotic setting
<i>In Style</i>
A vivid storyteller . . . Unfolding over four generations like a Greek tragedy, it's a compulsive and often harrowing tale.
<i>Daily Mirror</i>
Echoes of Memoirs of a Geisha in this exotic family saga
<i>Sunday Mirror</i>
Powerful
<i>Daily Mail</i>
Drips with local colour . . . wonderful.
<i>Woman & Home</i>
A vividly atmospheric novel of tragedy, superstition, belief and hope.
<i>Times Play</i>
Rich in domestic detail essential for a convincing family saga . . . this novel transcends its genre . . . she has created a novel with its own strong flavour.
<i>New Woman</i>
You'll love Rani Manicka's first novel.