Why a Booktrail?
Various times, 1980s : From the lush beauty of Sri Lanka, to mystical India, then Australia, this is the story of one precious saree and the lives it changes.
Saree
What you need to know before your trail
One beautiful Saree woven from silk into a pattern of love, hope and devotion and the stories of six people all wrapped up in its threads whose lives are interwoven into the very fabric of its being.
Nila is a seamstress and despite being poor, she has a talent – a rare talent which sees her taking fabric and thread and creating something of inordinate beauty with her skill. What she weaves into the saree she makes will give hope and inspiration to so many people.
There’s Mahinda who yearns for his true calling; Pilar who is haunted by a terrible choice; Sarojini who doubts her ability to love; Madhav who is a holy fraud; and Marion who is soon to witness the very meaning of love.
Six lives. Six loves. Six stories all woven into the essence of one saree.
Travel Guide
The story of Saree – saree making and silk spinning takes us from the tense atmosphere of Sri Lanka, to India and then to Australia in a tale involving the mysticism, culture and spiritualist worlds of all three countries
Sri Lanka
The mystical world starts in Sri Lanka and takes us on a journey of saree making and silk-spinning. The backdrop to this world however is the Sri Lanka of the early 1980s at a time when civil war was escalating as the tensions, the ethnic tensions between the Singhalese majority and Tamil minority were spiraling out of control.
Nila who has escaped her family to become a saree maker, embroiders all her feelings of confusion, desire, hope and determination to succeed into a beautiful saree. This then is the thread which weaves into the heart of so many over the years to come.
The war and oppression are heartbreakingly evoked – no one side is the winner here –
‘No one will ever know who threw the first stone. It hardly seems to matter now …So many people dead. So many lives destroyed.’
India
The Hindu Goddess Saraswati is the patron of arts, science and culture as well as knowledge and appears throughout the story as a sign of inspiration and divine intervention in a world where the saree silk making takes it to a whole new level.
Language
This is a novel of three very culturally and historically different countries and this rich landscape is enhanced further by the languages each character speaks. Whether it is Hindi, Singhalese or Tamil, there are sprinkles of words and phrases throughout. Luckily a glossary is on hand to help. Yet the atmosphere it creates is enriched along with the landscape.
Australia
Finally in Australia we meet Madhav, a Hindu pundit who is trying to fit in with his new country calling it “bereft of people, colour and life”. Marion. meanwhile is a Melbourne doctor, adrift in life as she helps others.
Each story, each person is transformed by the saree woven by Nila.
Booktrailer Review
Clare:
What a beautiful novel in so many ways. From the exquisite covers (some of which have a saree like design on the front) to the story itself, this is a novel of one saree whose threads link the lives of six people. It’s a great premise and an interesting tale that gives a unique insight into the people and the culture of Sri Lanka and India with a short visit to Australia.
I’d not read other books by this author before but I’m intrigued to do so now as I love books which showcase so many cultural differences but when it comes down to it, we’re all human and all want the same basic things – to be loved and to be happy.
The second story of the novel was the stand out for me as it really revealed the ‘behind the scenes’ look at the process of silk production. Exquisite!
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