The Daughters of Madurai: A Novel

The Daughters of Madurai is both a page-turning mystery and a heartrending story of the fraught family dynamics and desperate choices that face a young mother in India. Spanning 1990s South India and present-day Australia, the novel follows Janani, a mother who will do anything to save her unborn daughter, and Nila, a young woman who embarks on a life-changing journey of self-discovery. Madurai, 1992. A young mother in a poor family, Janani is told she is useless if she cant produce a sonor worse, if she bears daughters. They let her keep her first baby girl, but the rest are taken away as soon as they are born, and murdered. But Janani cant forget the daughters she was never allowed to love . . . Sydney, 2019. Nila has a secret; one shes been keeping from her parents for too long. Before she can say anything, her grandfather in India falls ill, so she agrees to join her parents on a trip to Madurai. Nila knows little about where her family came from or who they left behind. What shes about to learn will change her forever. While The Daughters of Madurai explores the harrowing issue of female infanticide, its also a universal story about the bond between mothers and daughters, the strength of women, the power of love in overcoming all obstaclesand the secrets we must keep to protect the ones we hold dear. Fans of historical and contemporary fiction novels about India such asAlka Joshis The Henna Artist from the Jaipur Trilogy and Thrity Umrigars The Space Between Us, as well as Kristin Hannahs books exploring sisterhood and mother-daughter relationships will enjoy Variyars poignant debut. This extraordinary work of fiction tells a story that deserves to be read and discussed for years to come.