The Daughters of Madurai set in India and Australia

Submitted: 10th April 2023

‘A girl is a burden. A girl is a curse.’

If that is the tagline of the book, imagine the impact of the story inside/

A girl from Australia travels back to Madurai in India and finds out something about her family that will change her life forever,

BookTrail Travel to The Daughters of Madurai

Boarding Pass Information: Madurai and Sydney

Author guide: Rajasree Variyar

Genre: fiction

Food and drink to accompany: Something from India!

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BookTrail Travel to The Daughters of Madurai

Wow. This book almost broke me. It’s a very powerful story and a very powerful way of writing. Set between India and Sydney, location and culture are very much part of this novel. The title looks at those girls from India who are born into a certain life and culture from which there seems little to no chance of escape.

Janani is the mum in the story who lives in India and who has several daughters. She keeps losing them though and we learn that it’s due to the awful and horrific practice of female infanticide. She does manage to save one daughter, Nila, who she manages to get to Australia. Shs grows up and has a life there but India, Madurai is always in her blood.

I was amazed to find that this was a debut. Wow. This is an author I ‘m going to watch as if this is the first subject she writes about, and in such a strong way, I want to read whatever else she writes. One very impressive thing was that she wrote two very distinct timelines and both were very strong and compelling. We see India in the 1990s and then Australia in 2019 so two different timelines and cultures was very nicely threaded together. This was the crux of the story but the author made it feel seamless.

I really admire this author as she’s written a story which will inform and educate a lot of people but also encourage dicusssion of many issues within. The stories were threaded nicely but for a fuller picture I would have loved to have found out more about Janani’s story before she had her family. There are a few characters on the sidelines that I also wanted to know more about. Hope Shubha is ok!

Despite the complex subject and themes, this is a straightforward and easy read in many respects. It’s a powerful one and I think it’s simplicity is largely reponsible for making this stand out.

Stunning cover by the way!