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The Daughters of Madurai: A Novel by [Rajasree Variyar]

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Rajasree Variyar

The Daughters of Madurai: A Novel Kindle Edition

by Rajasree Variyar (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

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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.

Print length

338 pages
Language

English
Sticky notes

On Kindle Scribe
Publisher

Union Square & Co.
Publication date

February 28, 2023
File size

3780 KB
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From the Publisher

photo of a smiling indian woman in a red beret

Rajasree Variyar is an author and short story writer born in Bangalore and raised in Sydney. Her short stories won second prize in the Shooter Literary Magazine short story competition and were longlisted for the Brick Lane Bookshop short story competition. The Daughters of Madurai is Variyar’s debut novel, inspired by a childhood memory of a news segment about a case of female infanticide in her birthplace of Bangalore—and her experience spending time with a grassroots charity in Madurai empowering women and educating girls and boys to help eradicate the practice. A marathoner and self-described history nerd, she lives in London.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“[A] wrenching debut . . . . [T]he gripping account of the family’s struggle to save Nila will keep readers on the hook, as will the tension between Nila and Janani as Nila tries to find a way to share her identity . . . . [T]he complex mother-daughter story will move readers.”—Publishers Weekly

“A haunting, powerful novel [about] a trauma that endures and spawns secrets that spread through the generations. . . . The Daughters of Madurai is also about the cleansing effects of modernity and love and hope.”—Thrity Umrigar, bestselling author of The Space Between Us

"Bursting with the vivid colors, sounds, and scents of India past and present, The Daughters of Madurai is a searing, heartrending story about the fierce love between mothers and daughters. This novel gripped me from the opening page. It continues to haunt me."—Lauren Belfer, New York Times bestselling author of And After the Fire and Ashton Hall.

“The Daughters of Madurai is a captivating and riveting debut from an unforgettable new voice.”—Louise O’Neill, author of Asking for It

“A moving debut.”—Cosmopolitan (UK) --This text refers to the hardcover edition.

About the Author

Rajasree Variyar is an author and short story writer born in Bangalore and raised in Sydney. Her short stories won second prize in the Shooter Literary Magazine short story competition and were longlisted for the Brick Lane Bookshop short story competition. The Daughters of Madurai is Variyar’s debut novel, inspired by a childhood memory of a news segment about a case of female infanticide in her birthplace of Bangalore—and her experience spending time with a grassroots charity in Madurai empowering women and educating girls and boys to help eradicate the practice. A marathoner and self-described history nerd, she lives in London.
--This text refers to the hardcover edition.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

PROLOGUE
2019
A girl is a burden. A girl is a curse.
    I read this in the articles and reports and books I’ve downloaded onto my phone. There are a dozen reasons why so many families in India don’t want a girl. Reasons rooted in India’s centuries-old pastiche of traditions. When she gets married, her parents pay a dowry to the husband’s family. It’s supposed to be her inheritance, her share of their parents’ wealth. It’s illegal. It has been since 1961. But they don’t call it dowry anymore. They are “gifts,” ounces of gold, white goods, land, piling high on her parents’ shoulders, driving them into the dirt. More than one dowry can leave families destitute.
    She doesn’t carry the family name. Without a boy, the family dies. She has no independence of wealth. Until recently, she couldn’t have a bank account without a husband or a father. She could not own property. In the records, in history, she doesn’t exist.
    Her education is basic. She struggles to earn income.
    She can’t perform her parents’ funeral rites. And without those rites, her parents will never reach nirvana.
    In some places, up north, there are so few girls now that they’re kid- napped from other states, sold into marriage in families whose language they don’t know. Sold into slavery.
   The flights, the hops from Madurai to Chennai, Chennai to Sydney, bring me no sleep. Instead I read until my eyes ache.

CHAPTER ONE
Madurai, India, 1992
Almost two months before her conception
She does not exist even in thought

Janani knew, the minute the midwife placed her naked, squalling, soft-as-silk daughter in her arms, that she couldn’t lose this one.
    An image came to her mind, burying a bundle gone cold and still in the dirt by the young coconut palm. Her hands drew the hated little body closer.
    Tiny limbs moved in fitful pumps as Janani looked down into a face as round and purple as a mangosteen. The baby’s mouth shifted over the swollen skin of her breast, and her plaintive wail died as she found the nipple and began to feed. Her minute fingers rested against the skin over Janani’s heart.
    Janani watched her in the light of the oil lamp, her eyes trailing along each line of her body, trying to find something that made her less than perfect.
    “Rock, my little peacock.” The lullaby escaped through her lips, the first words she’d managed since that last, pain-riddled push. Hands were fussing around her, tender and papery—Kamala, the old, strong midwife who had delivered most of the rest of Usilampatti district, over what seemed like centuries. Janani barely noticed, until someone spoke.
    “Give her to me.” Pain and weariness turned what should have been a familiar voice into a half-recognized echo.
    No, Janani tried to say. It stayed a tired whisper in her mind.
    She wanted to hold this new life for as long as she could.
    There was a rough fumble, nails scratching against her forearms, and the warmth of new-born, new-drawn skin was gone. Her daughter began to cry again. The noise stuttered into existence like a steam engine’s chugs. The door closed, muffling the sound.
    Was it Shubha? No, no it couldn’t be. Her friend was gone, pushed out, a long time ago, before the pains became so strong Janani forgot what was around her.
    Get up, you idiot, she thought. She raised herself on to one elbow, then rolled on to the other.
    Kamala loomed over her, hands on Janani’s shoulders, gently urging her down onto the thin pallet. Her wrinkles had reshaped themselves into grim worry. “Rest now, child.”
    Janani’s arms were shaking beneath her. She collapsed back on the bed. One hand came down on the mat with an angry thump. She’d lost track of the hours she’d lain here, but exhaustion was drifting over her like fog.
    Sleep dragged her down, blanketing the echo of the baby’s cries.

--This text refers to the hardcover edition.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0BFJRKV5D
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Union Square & Co. (February 28, 2023)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ February 28, 2023
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 3780 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
Print length ‏ : ‎ 338 pages
Page numbers source ISBN ‏ : ‎ 1454948760

Best Sellers Rank: #117,821 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #714 in Cultural Heritage Fiction
- #1,291 in Mothers & Children Fiction
- #15,058 in Women's Fiction (Kindle Store)

Customer Reviews:
4.4 143 ratings

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Rajasree Variyar

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Rajasree was born in Bangalore, India, moved to Australia at the ripe age of six months, and grew up in sunny Sydney. She completed a Bachelor of Arts and Commerce double degree, with an eclectic and enjoyable mix of studies in classical archaeology, international relations, finance and Indonesian. This was followed by a degree in Psychology.

She’s been a Londoner for the last eight years, juggling a career in insurance with writing. In 2020, she completed her MA Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia (hopefully her last degree). Her short stories have been long-listed for the Brick Lane Bookshop SS competition and won second prize in Shooter Literary Magazine's SS competition.

The Daughters of Madurai, her first novel, was short-listed for Hatchette UK's Mo Siewcherran prize.

Rajasree lives in London with her husband, daughter and Irish Doodle. In her spare time, she reads compulsively in most genres, travels as much as possible and runs marathons in interesting places. She's currently working on her second novel and trying not to get distracted by ideas for her third.

Customer reviews

4.4 out of 5

143 global ratings

5 star		57%
4 star		30%
3 star		8%
2 star		2%
1 star		3%

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Top reviews from the United States

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Amazon Customer

A beautiful, heartbreaking, story about love in its many forms

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on May 6, 2023

Verified Purchase

For me, at heart it’s a story about love. Painful, beautiful, complicated love. About relationships, mothers and their daughters, fathers and theirs.

And it’s about the fragility of being human. About the push and pull between life and death. But also about resilience and courage.

Rajasree expertly explores what it means to be a woman in southern India, the ugly truth about female infanticide, and the socioeconomic and caste divides that plague India still.

It reminded me of the bitterness of women caught in and even perpetuating an interminable cycle of patriarchy and misogyny. And how different and better a woman’s life can be with the support of other women. It made me think about the big ways and the little ways that sexism happens. And it made me feel very strongly that I will do everything to make sure to protect the women I know from it as best I can.

It’s also a story about roots. About reclaiming your history. It’s about identity, particularly for immigrants who sometimes belong to two worlds or to none.

This is not a fast paced thriller. It’s meant to be read slowly. I savored the words, imagined the world Rajasree describes so beautifully, felt the pain, and thought deep thoughts.

On a lighter note, it was amazing to see familiar foods, clothing, names, language in English literature. The story made me crave dosa and idli and sambar and parle G.

Helpful

Kindle customer

Fascinating and Touching

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on April 4, 2023

Verified Purchase

I had no idea what Indian culture was like for the poor and rich people. I was sad to learn about what happened to so many unwanted female babies. It was also a beautiful live story about people from different castes. Love conquers all.

2 people found this helpful

Helpful

no.more.shelf.control

Heartbreaking and Hopeful Saga

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on May 7, 2023

THE DAUGHTERS OF MADURAI by Rajasree Variyar is as beautiful a story as the cover suggests.

⭐⭐⭐⭐💫

This is a family saga that just about tears your heart out, but then shows you how much love one is capable of in the midst of desperation.

Janani's story begins in Madurai, India in 1992 when she is giving birth to yet another girl. The first one she could keep, but not the next ones. Instead, they are taken and killed until she can bear a son.

In Sydney Australia in 2019, Nila is struggling to share a part of who she is. When her grandfather's health declines and the entire family returns to India, where her mother said she would never return, secrets long buried come to to the surface and change everything.

This is a heavy read for sure. While I have known "of" this type of behavior toward girls, this story brought this to life in a very real way. I honestly thought this was something relegated to long ago history, not the 1990's. There are obvious triggers for those who struggle with such subjects, but wow, did this story display the depth of a mother's love, as well as the love of partner. There was such a deep care by some of the characters, it made the horrendous actions done by others to be somehow survivable, but only barely. I was moved by Sanjay is such a deep way. I also felt it an interesting idea to contemplate who owns the stories of our past and who deserves to know it, despite the hurt it can cause.

This is a story that made me want to cast judgement. I tried really hard to allow the author to teach me and lead me into this story, showing me what she wanted. I ended up seeing a system that wounds women and those wounds continue through generations, compounding. It is also not beyond the bounds of love. But it may be beyond the reach of reconciliation.

Thank you again to @storygramtours for the gifted book! It is a gorgeously written drama and it is out now!

Helpful

Cari E Zuckerman

heart-wrenching story of courage, hope, and the love

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on February 28, 2023

In 1993 Madurai, India, Janani prays for a male child. Having been allowed to keep her first daughter, she has had to bear the unimaginable grief of two baby daughters being killed by her mother-in-law as female children are viewed as worthless and expensive. Now she bears another child that she is determined to save.

In 2019 Australia, Nila knows nothing about her mother’s early life in Australia. When the family travels to India for one last visit with her dying paternal grandfather, both mother and daughter hold onto secrets.

Daughters of Madurai is a heart-wrenching story of courage, hope, and the love between mother and daughter. The dual timeline narrative works really well here as the author shows the ending while managing to keep readers engaged and curious as the backstory unfolds.

It’s truly terrible to think that female infanticide is not a horrific tradition of bygone days. Variyar tells about this truly unsettling practice without drowning the reader in despair. Instead, readers are treated with care and given an ample dose of love and hope without sugarcoating. I found both storylines compelling and enjoyed spending time with both Janani and Nila. Variyar is immensely talented, I look forward to future novels.

5 people found this helpful

Helpful

ViveElan

Powerful, heart-wrenching and heartwarming at the same time

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on May 27, 2023

Daughters were not wanted or valued in my mother's family because of sexual abuse, rape, extreme poverty, manual back-breaking labor from a young age and lack of good options to change things.
This story about a young Indian woman and her families and choices is devastating, heart-wrenching but also heart warming and full of love.
The ending, the surprise blew me away and landed the already excellent book on my over-the-moon shelf.
Jannai's strength through adversity, the love she and Sanjay shared from when they we little was amazing. The beauty, nurturing and generosity of Sanjay's mama
and aunt.
Nila's anger at her mother for not sharing her story. Her mother was trying to protect her. She didn't understand until she knew. Wow! It was Nila's surprise at the very end that just took it to the next level for me.
The writing was absolutely wonderful. The author kept you reading and guessing until the last sweet surprise!

Helpful

K. Panza

great read and boookclub selection

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on March 14, 2023

I really enjoyed this bookclub pick from Barnes and Noble . I thought it was a well written well told story . I enjoyed the menu laters . Some of the words for grandparents confused me when reafinv between the time lines . One of their best selections !

Helpful

Top reviews from other countries

Denise Jarrett

The Power of Women in a system where Women have no power.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on May 23, 2023

Verified Purchase

We have all heard about the caste system and infanticide in India but to hear the personal story of someone you get to know like Janani in this novel brings it home to you.
Janani keeps giving birth to daughters to the anger of her husband and mother-in-law who know they cannot afford to provide a dowry for them. Her husband asks her already poor parents for a higher dowry as their daughter cannot give him sons. It is an impossible situation but the novel is not all darkness. Janani escapes her background and has good friends in Sanjay and his family and her friend and the local midwife. Years later, In Australia, Janani cannot bear to tell her daugher their story but Nila, with a secret of her own, needs to know the truth.
This was a heart wrenching story and I had to wipe away a few tears but I would highly recommend it.
Provided by The Reading Agency and Orion
Denise Jarrett
Methley Bookgroup

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