The Rice Mother - Rani Manicka

The Rice Mother is the first novel by Rani Manicka, who lives in England but was born and educated in Malaysia. This book won the Commonwealth Writers Prize for 2003, and in my opinion, this is very much deserved. This novel comes in at 581 pages, so should keep you going for a fair amount of time. I however was totally engrossed and finished it in a week! The Rice Mother starts it's tale with a young girl called Lakshmi (born in 1916), whose mother marrys her off to what she believes is a wealthy young man, in order that she can have the life her mother was denied. The young bride is taken away to live with her new husband, and it is then we learn the truth - ...  Read the complete review