num_pages: 432
description: Nothing in Lakshmi's childhood, running carefree and barefoot on the sun-baked earth amid the coconut and mango trees of Ceylon, could have prepared her for what life was to bring her. At fourteen, she finds herself traded in marriage to a stranger across the ocean in the fascinating land of Malaysia. Duped into thinking her new husband is wealthy, she instead finds herself struggling to raise a family with a man too impractical to face reality and a world that is, by turns, unyielding and amazing, brutal and beautiful. Giving birth to a child every year until she is nineteen, Lakshmi becomes a formidable matriarch, determined to wrest from the world a better life for her daughters and sons and to face every new challenge with almost mythic strength.By sheer willpower Lakshmi survives the nightmare of World War II and the Japanese occupation -- but not unscathed. The family bears deep scars on its back and in turn inflicts those wounds on the next generation. But it is not until Lakshmi's great-granddaughter, Nisha, pieces together the mosaic of her family history that the legacy of the Rice Mother bears fruit.
language: English
title: The Rice Mother
titlecomplete: The Rice Mother
genres: Magical Realism, Asian Literature, Historical, Cultural, India, Asia, Historical Fiction, Contemporary, Literary Fiction, Fiction
ratings_count: 7061
places: Malaysia
awards: awardedAt: 1041408000000
name: Commonwealth Writers' Prize
category: Best First Book in South East Asia and Pacific, awardedAt: 1293868800000
name: POPULAR-The Star Readers’ Choice Awards
category: Fiction
publisher: Penguin Books