num_pages: 179
description: Issues of caste, slavery, racism, and the immigrant experience in the early 19th century are addressed in this novel. Rohini and Vidia, a young married couple struggling for survival in a small, caste-ridden Indian village are seduced by a recruiter's persuasive talk of easy work and plentiful land. They sign up as indentured laborers to go to British Guiana and discover their harsh fate as "bound coolies" in a country only just emerging from the savage brutalities of slavery. In their problematic encounters with the Afro-Guyanese, hostile to immigrant labor, they confront the truths of their uprooted condition and learn to live with their fate.
language: English
title: Counting House
titlecomplete: Counting House
genres: India
ratings_count: 68
awards: awardedAt: 883641600000
name: Dublin Literary Award
category: Shortlist
publisher: Peepal Tree Press Ltd.