Winner of the South East Asia and South Pacific Region Commonwealth Writers' Prize in 2003

A compelling glimpse into a captivatingly exotic world of myth and magic.

Beguiled by promises of wealth, fourteen-year-old Lakshmi leaves her native Ceylon for Malaya and marriage to a man many years her senior. But Ayah has lied to her and her family about his circumstances and in fact he lives in poverty. A woman of formidable energy and intelligence, Lakshmi provides security, if not luxury, for her family, though at a considerable emotional cost. Then the Japanese army invades during WWII.

The family bears deep scars and inflicts those wounds on the next generation. But in Nisha, Lakshmi's great-granddaughter, it is as if Fate has come full circle . . .

"It would be difficult not to be seduced by . . . the intriguing mixture of myth, religion and superstition . . . there is a freedom and freshness in the manner in which the author explores the interior life of her characters whose idiosyncrasies and many failings are sympathetically and sometimes humorously observed . . . It possesses a genuine intimacy and passionate involvement." - Elizabeth Buchan, Times Play

"You'll struggle to find a more powerful, moving read this year." - Glamour

"Emotionally satisfying, complex books like this are harder to find." - Heat

"I simply didn't want it to end . . . The characters themselves, with their resolute individualism, ultimately seem larger than either the superbly drawn historical background or the novel's exotic setting" - Image Magazine

"A vivid storyteller . . . Unfolding over four generations like a Greek tragedy, it's a compulsive and often harrowing tale." - In Style

"Echoes of Memoirs of a Geisha in this exotic family saga" - Daily Mirror

"Powerful" - Sunday Mirror

"Drips with local colour . . . wonderful." - Daily Mail

"A vividly atmospheric novel of tragedy, superstition, belief and hope." - Woman & Home

"Rich in domestic detail essential for a convincing family saga . . . this novel transcends its genre . . . she has created a novel with its own strong flavour." - Times Play

"You'll love Rani Manicka's first novel." - New Woman