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The Daughters of Madurai is a captivating and riveting debut from an unforgettable new voice.”—Louise O’Neill, author of Asking for It Heartbreaking, emotional and thought-provoking… I will think about this story for a long time’ ALIYA ALI- AFZAL
I can't speak to the truths here. Like I said above, this is not my culture. I also quite enjoyed Kaikeyi, which no other South Asian I know enjoyed. So take this to heart. But this will remain a very special story to me. Books that invoke feeling often are. Janani is very often told by her mother in law that she is useless, because she keeps giving birth to daughters. They allow her to keep one, Lavanika. The others are killed. When other families in the same area give up their female babies to orphanages, they are looked down on, as this is more shameful than killing them. Reading The Daughters of Madurai was like no other experience I’ve ever had before. It was deeply personal; intimate in a way that venturing too far only results in the unravelling of certain wounds concealed deep within. Rajasree Variyar creates a striking contrast between the two timelines scattered across the novel—present and the past. This isn’t a tale for the faint-hearted but a tale of the deeply woven misogyny in the minds of the people in India, an issue that was more than just an issue decades ago. This book has two POVs. Janani lives in Madurai in 1992. Nila lives in Sydney in 2019. I guessed the connection long before it was mentioned, but as in other books with two POVs, one was clearly the winner for me. Janani's story captivated me from the first. Nila grew on me.
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Firstly, I must appreciate the subject the author chose for her debut book. There are countless stories of women who ran away from home with nothing except their daughter(s). And of those who fought tooth and nail to keep their little girls alive. Even today, the discrimination is evident. This one revolves around Australia and India - alternating in each chapter between Madurai of the 90s and Sydney of 2019. It isn't easy to write two contrasting scenarios. In this context, the author was impressive. The Daughters of Madurai is a mother-daughter love story. It also gives an alarming insight into female infanticide and misogyny, as well as the strength and fortitude necessary to be a woman and a mother. Female Infanticide and all the obstacles and traditions that it brings including dowry, is the basis of this book. Fans of historical and contemporary fiction novels about India such as Alka 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.
It just feels like a novel of missed opportunities, where the rawness of the subject matter does the work over the actual writing. There are interesting elements, like how it is often the women reinforcing the patriarchal status who—it is Janani’s mother in law, not her husband, who kills the unwanted girls—or how giving a child up for adoption is deeply shameful—a character attempts suicide after doing so, even knowing the alternative is that her family would kill the baby—but the novel never really goes into them, rendering almost every character flat and leaving the reader to make connections themselves. Like, wouldn’t it have been interesting if Nila, a queer woman, had plans to adopt in the future, to contrast Shubha’s shame of not raising her own daughter? Or if Nila were a proponent of abortion care, to demonstrate how women, in different circumstances, are forced both to kill wanted children through female infanticide and keep unwanted fetuses in forced births, both to uphold the patriarchy? Janani’s character growth is interesting, especially in the past timeline. She isn’t shown as perfect, but as someone who knows her limits and tries to push them to the fullest. I also liked the author’s choice of name for her. ‘Janani’ means ‘mother’ in Sanskrit, so it feels like an apt name for a character whose entire identity stems from her ability to be a mother to sons while all she pines for is her lost daughters. Even Shubha and Kamala were good characters. I wish there had been more of them in the book. 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. As a low-caste cleaner for a wealthy family, Janani's duty has always been quiet obedience. Even at home, her mother-in-law's word is law. Janani has never dared to dream of a different life. But now, she has something she'll do anything to protect... even if it means losing everything she's ever known.
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. Thought eh story is mainly about some women from Madurai -Kadambavanam, it appeals to all daughters of the world. While Janani is the protagonist of the story, for me Sanjay is indeed the silent hero. 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. Without going into spoilers: Lavanika is five and had no living siblings. Nila is two years older than Rohit. The timelines have a 27 years gap. This data won't make sense to you now, but if you read the book, you'll realise that this simple maths will reveal much in advance, a supposedly surprising twist. I am one who likes characters’ ages being mentioned, but in this case, they were a spoiler to what should have been an ‘Oh my!’ moment. The Kallar community, concentrated in Usilampatti taluk, accounts for nearly 80% of its 2.65 lakh population. It is said there is hardly a poor Kallar family where a female baby was not murdered during the 90s. People are aware of the cruel crime but do not admit it, and it continues sporadically. Enigma of love
This makes us very involved in and sympathetic to Janini’s situation. It also has the side effect of making Nila just a little bit less sympathetic, in my opinion. Her insistence on her right to know all about what we know is an extremely traumatic history makes her seem insensitive. As well as this, she comes off as quite naive in some places, which also doesn’t endear her. It’s also possible that I found Nila’s sections less enthralling because her secret is revealed to the reader right at the start of the book, and the tension is simply “when will she reveal it?” It is such a terrible thing,” she said instead. “Religion should be a great unifier. Are we not all one before Bhagavan? Whether you call him Bhagavan or Bhagavati, Krishna or Shiva, Allah or Jesus or Buddha. Such hard lives people live, Sanju, that they turn the beauty of God into evil.” Heartrending but ultimately hopeful, this richly evocative and spellbinding book will touch your soul’ VERONICA HENRY In spite of all the advancements and the progress humanity has managed to achieve, keeping the girls safe and mothers happy is a dream yet to become a reality in most parts of this tiny earth. Many have failed to take proper action against sexual exploitation and oppression of women and to ensure their right for education, freedom, and safety. This book is a welcome step in the right direction to see that dream come true. For a better tomorrow for the women on this earth read this book. As a father of two loving daughters, I myself hope, pray, and demand this change.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. The representation of the Indian locations in the contemporary 2019 timeline felt like wishful thinking than realistic. I don’t know if this was to cater to the American market, but bowling isn’t a popular pastime activity in India at all. So to see characters choose bowling as their option one for relaxing made me laugh. And please, what in the world is ‘Thank Bhagavan!’ Phrases aren’t to be translated verbatim across languages. There are many cultural inaccuracies as well. I wish authors didn’t bend facts so much just to cater to the target market.
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