Sharon D. reviewed on 11/27/2005 + 224 more book reviews

Helpful Score: 1

This is one of those novels that defines convention and traditional reading - this is a first novel of Eastern exoticism, myth and magic, and unforgettable characters, living and dead. It has a genuine intimacy and passionate involvement.
The story is about a 14 year-old girl from Ceylon who is traded off in marriage to a stranger across the ocean in the land of Malaysia. Duped into thinking her new husband is wealthy, she instead finds herself struggling to raise a family with a man too impractical to face reality and a world that is, by turns, unyielding and amazing, brutal and beautiful. Giving birth to a child every year until she is nineteen, she becomes a formidable matriarch, determine to grab from the world a better life for her daughters and sons and to face every new challenge with almost mythic strength. She survives by sheer willpower World War II and the Japanese occupation - but not unscathed. Dreamy and lyrical, told in alternating voices of the men and women of this amazing family this book brings a story of a world where small pleasures offset unimaginable horrors and where ghosts and gods walk hand in hand...

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