The Daughters of Madurai is both a page-turning mystery and a
heartrending story of the fraught family dynamics and desperate choices
that face a young mother in India. Spanning 1990s South India and
present-day Australia, the novel follows Janani, a mother who will do
anything to save her unborn daughter, and Nila, a young woman who
embarks on a life-changing journey of self-discovery.
Madurai, 1992. A young mother in a poor family, Janani is told she
is useless if she can't produce a son--or worse, if she bears daughters.
They let her keep her first baby girl, but the rest are taken away as
soon as they are born, and murdered. But Janani can't forget the
daughters she was never allowed to love . . .
Sydney, 2019. Nila has a secret; one she's been keeping from her
parents for too long. Before she can say anything, her grandfather in
India falls ill, so she agrees to join her parents on a trip to Madurai.
Nila knows little about where her family came from or who they left
behind. What she's about to learn will change her forever.
While The Daughters of Madurai explores the harrowing issue of female
infanticide, it's also a universal story about the bond between mothers
and daughters, the strength of women, the power of love in overcoming
all obstacles--and the secrets we must keep to protect the ones we hold
dear.
Fans of historical and contemporary fiction novels about India such
asAlka Joshi's The Henna Artist from the Jaipur Trilogy and Thrity
Umrigar's The Space Between Us, as well as Kristin Hannah's books
exploring sisterhood and mother-daughter relationships will enjoy
Variyar's poignant debut. This extraordinary work of fiction
tells a story that deserves to be read and discussed for years to
come.
