Rice Mother - Tapa blanda

A first novel of Eastern exoticism and unforgettable characters . . . You'll struggle to find a more powerful, moving read this year. - Glamour Transcends barriers of culture, time and place. Memorable for capturing the contradictions of life, the magic and the blight, it should sell in mega numbers. - Publishing News It would be difficult not to be seduced by the evocation of setting, family life, clothes, food and 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. - Elizabeth Buchan THE RICE MOTHER is exactly the kind of absorbing, cross-generational read that will pass away a few more train journeys than the average popular paperback . . . brimming over with colourful imagery, mythology, unfeeling men and vivid descriptions of cooking . . . Emotionally satisfying, complex books like this are harder to find. - Heat 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 - Image Magazine A wonderful treasure-house of a story, a gem of a

Lakshmi's childhood in Ceylon is idyllic, but her family is poor, so at the age of 14 she is married off. Her husband promises her wealth and ease in Malaysia, but once married she discovers that he has lied and in fact lives in poverty. Undaunted, she works ceaselessly to provide for her children.