{"id":28726,"date":"2014-05-27T09:37:20","date_gmt":"2014-05-27T13:37:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/?p=28726"},"modified":"2014-05-27T09:47:54","modified_gmt":"2014-05-27T13:47:54","slug":"the-girl-in-the-garden-by-kamala-nair","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/the-girl-in-the-garden-by-kamala-nair\/","title":{"rendered":"The Girl in the Garden by Kamala Nair"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Girl<\/a>After years of keeping secrets, Rakhee Singh’s “demons” have finally “clawed their way free.” Without confronting what happened to her family that summer in India when\u00a0she turned 11, she finds herself unable to\u00a0embrace her future\u00a0\u2013 her impending architecture degree, her promising design\u00a0job, and most importantly, marriage to her “wonderful man.”<\/p>\n

More than a decade earlier, blue aerograms from the other side of the world\u00a0call Rakhee’s mother Chitra back to the extended family home in Kerala, ironically named Ashoka\u00a0\u2013 Sanskrit for “without sorrow.” Before she was Rakhee’s mother, Chitra fled the compound at 17 and arrived in Plainfield, Minnesota, where she had a cousin who welcomed her. She married Rakhee’s father \u2013 13 years her senior and a research doctor \u2013 and tried to be content as a wife and mother. By the time Chitra and Rakhee board the flight to India, Rakhee knows her parents’ relationship is about to implode, but she’s hopeful she can somehow bring them back together, even with thousands of miles between them.<\/p>\n

As much as she adores her\u00a0cousins, Rakhee is too aware of the tensions all around. The stuttering stranger Dev, who is not a family member but never far, is a malignant presence. Her mother’s older sister Sadhana couldn’t be more severe. Her Uncle Vijay is drunk far too often. Her grandmother seems to be getting\u00a0weaker every day. She overhears\u00a0too many whispered conversations and finds herself on the wrong side of the closed doors.<\/p>\n

And then she discovers the secret garden, and the girl who lives within. Her name is Tulasi, and her\u00a0only constant companion is a white peacock she calls Puck. Tulasi\u00a0believes she will die if she ever\u00a0ventures\u00a0beyond her protective\u00a0walls. But the girls’ bond is instant, and Rahkee is determined to free her new friend. Unable to fully understand what is happening around her, Rakhee’s rash reactions\u00a0set off\u00a0a series of tragic events and\u00a0Rakhee’s family can never, ever be the same again.<\/p>\n

Interestingly, the\u00a0Varmas in Nair’s\u00a0Garden<\/em>\u00a0are\u00a0clearly Hindu,\u00a0yet Kerala, because of its colonial Portuguese history, was once a Christian stronghold. That influence\u00a0of the Edenic narrative,\u00a0whether intentional or not, is\u00a0subtly woven through\u00a0Nair’s novel: Tulasi eats the proffered mango which sparks\u00a0her discontent, what she thought was perfect truth is challenged when Rakhee shares new outside knowledge, she even has a desperate moment of vanity.<\/p>\n

If you choose to go aural, Anitha Gandhi makes for an excellent narrator, smoothly\u00a0modulating between innocent wonder,\u00a0childish petulance,\u00a0threatening stutter,\u00a0blind exasperation, and more. You’ll also be rewarded with an interview with Kamala Nair<\/a> who speaks about the inspiration for her debut novel, which includes a\u00a0visit\u00a0to her father’s ancestral family home in Kerala, her family’s hospital nearby,\u00a0her beloved grandmother’s death. And yet while certain details may overlap, Rakhee’s story is only Nair’s story in that it springs from\u00a0her imagination. Three years in the writing,\u00a0Garden<\/em>\u00a0proves to be\u00a0quite the lush, evocative, haunting (audible) read.<\/p>\n

Readers<\/strong>: Adult<\/p>\n

Published<\/strong>: 2011<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After years of keeping secrets, Rakhee Singh’s “demons” have finally “clawed their way free.” Without confronting what happened to her family that summer in India when\u00a0she turned 11, she finds herself unable to\u00a0embrace her future\u00a0\u2013 her impending architecture degree, her promising design\u00a0job, and most importantly,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":32256,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,81,6,52,53,17,18],"tags":[5716,6608,58,10,5714,123,5715,13,129,216,39,44],"class_list":["post-28726","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-adult-readers","category-audio","category-fiction","category-indian","category-indian-american","category-south-asian","category-south-asian-american","tag-anitha-gandhi","tag-bookdragon","tag-coming-of-age","tag-family","tag-girl-in-the-garden","tag-illness","tag-kamala-nair","tag-love","tag-mother-daughter-relationship","tag-mystery","tag-parent-child-relationship","tag-siblings"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Girl in the Garden by Kamala Nair - 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