The Daughters of Madurai: Heartwrenching yet ultimately uplifting, this incredible debut will make you think

Review 1
The Daughters of Madurai

The Daughters of Madurai is a explores the harsh truths of female infanticide which are difficult to read at times, but the perspective of the characters that you grow to love makes this a hard book to put down. The book also explores several other sexism related issues and other issues such as caste systems through its story telling which leave you reflecting on the what people have had to face and still do to this day. The description of the sights and smells of India allow you to get lost in the book along with well-written characters. The book is probably slightly longer than it needs to be but I loved reading about such a interesting topic, especially of Indian heritage myself, which left me wondering what we can do as a society but also as an individual to advocate change.

Review 2
What did you like about the book?
The family setting of the book and the atmosphere of India created by the descriptions of foods, sights and smells.

Which themes from the book did you enjoy?
I enjoyed the family dynamics in the book. It was interesting to read Nila as the first person rather than Janani. The flip between the two timelines worked well.

Did you have a favourite character. If so, who and why?
Janani as the main character of the story and how she got to where she is today.

How did this book make you feel?
Saddened that the practice of abandoning and killing girls took place but the book deals with the twisted reasoning behind that, helping you to see why it was done.
You knew that Janani had made it out of India at the beginning of the book, you wanted to read about how she got there.
I feel the ending was a little rushed in tying everything up though.

Who would you recommend this book to? My mum.

Review 3
A powerful first novel. I was shocked at how recently these events were set and how little women are valued and respected. Girls are a burden so are killed at birth and the community colludes in this practice. I thought that having the contrast between the daughter, brought up in Australia and the mother at the same age worked well to draw the reader into story . I found the stories upsetting but gripping. I was grateful for the glossary! The town of Madurai and the wider family there were vividly drawn. A good read which I would recommend. Read with Methley book group.

Review 4
Very well written. I learned a lot about the family life of different classes of Indian families. The stresses both familial and financial that lead to their behaviours. Initially I was confused by the Indian names for grandfather, uncle etc but they added to the richness of the story and an understanding of the status of the older members of the family. The dictionary of names at the back was extremely useful. I would recommend this book to my female friends and family.

A powerful first novel. I was shocked at how recently these events were set and how little women are valued and respected. Girls are a burden so are killed at birth and the community colludes in this practice. I thought that having the contrast between the daughter, brought up in Australia and the mother at the same age worked well to draw the reader into story . I found the stories upsetting but gripping. I was grateful for the glossary! The town of Madurai and the wider family there were vividly drawn. A good read which I would recommend. Read with Methley book group.

Daughters of Madurai by Rajasree Variyar

A beautiful, haunting story that stays with you. I was totally engrossed.

‘A girl is a burden. A girl is a curse.'

1992 - Madurai: a young mother in a poor family, Janani is allowed to keep her first baby girl but the rest are taken away at birth, too expensive to keep because of the dowry system.

2019 - Sydney: Nila knows very little about where she or her family came from, or who they left behind in India. When her grandfather falls ill and she agrees to join her parents on a trip to Madurai, what she learns will change her forever.

I knew about the caste system in India and heard about the disgrace of giving birth to girls, but to read it on a personal level was very thought provoking. To think this was only in the 1990’s and Janina’s own parents were involved in infanticide was shocking, especially when she had returned home to where she thought it was safe.
I found the book difficult to read at first, with the unfamiliar terms, but thankfully there is a glossary at the back of the book which I frequently turned to. There were a few grammatical and spelling errors which annoyed me, but all in all, I found it a good book to read.
I would have liked a little more detail in how and when the family moved to Australia.
I have now passed the book onto my daughter to read, so that shows how well worth reading it is.

Park WI book club.

I was pleased to have the opportunity to read this with Methley Book Club. Thank you to the Reading Agency and Orion publishers for the books.

What a wonderful book. I was absolutely captivated from page 1 and thoroughly enjoyed the story from start to finish, having been a little wary about the subject matter, before starting to read.
The main character in the book, Janani, had given birth to her daughters in the late 1980s/early 90s, just a few years before my own daughter was born, so I was incredibly shocked that baby girls could have been seen as a ‘curse’ in India, so recently. I completely empathised with Janani as I imagined the pain and heartache she was feeling over the death of her daughters and from the harsh way she was treated by her husband and mother in law. Janani is such a brilliant character, so strong and brave and I was rooting for her every step of the way. I loved her close bond with Shubha. Girl power! I loved the old midwife too - another wonderful strong woman.
I really enjoyed Nila’s story set in ‘present day’ which was told in alternate chapters to Janani’s story. There were some twists and turns along the way and assumptions that I had been making about the plot turned out to be incorrect.
There were some heart-wrenching moments and difficult happenings to read about but I really was gripped by the storyline and very much looked forward to reading more chapters each day. Very moving and thought provoking and made me count my blessings.
I highly recommend this book to other readers.

I am both moved and angered by the emotion of this book.
It took a while to get to grips with the use of language, I was grateful for the glossary.
Once the story began to unfold I was gripped. The life young girls had to endure is truly shocking.
It was a fabulously told story and one I would recommend to others- thank you for allowing our reading group to have access to this book.

A modern day fairy tale of a poor girl makes good with a rich man! But it is more than that as it tells the story of a young Indian woman raised in Australia discovering the roots of her past and delving into the secrets her mother holds. Those secrets tell of the horrendous cultural driven murder of girls because they cost the (poor) families a price of a dowry which they cannot afford. It touches on the angst that not knowing of your past brings to a person and how unrooted they feel but also of how the society norm is passed generation to generation despite it being illegal. Mamiyar suffered so she passes on that suffering to her daughter-in-law. The switching between the mothers story in the past and the daughters in the present means you know how it ends which perhaps detracts a little. However, an entertaining and disturbing read. It begs the question of why across cultures, religions and countries women are treated so badly!

We have all heard about the caste system and infanticide in India but to hear the personal story of someone you get to know like Janani in this novel brings it home to you.
Janani keeps giving birth to daughters to the anger of her husband and mother-in-law who know they cannot afford to provide a dowry for them. Her husband asks her already poor parents for a higher dowry as their daughter cannot give him sons. It is an impossible situation but the novel is not all darkness. Janani escapes her background and has good friends in Sanjay and his family and her friend and the local midwife. Years later, In Australia, Janani cannot bear to tell her daugher their story but Nila, with a secret of her own, needs to know the truth.
This was a heart wrenching story and I had to wipe away a few tears but I would highly recommend it.
Provided by The Reading Agency and Orion

A memorable book for all the right reasons, the story is both hear-breaking and heart-warming. The characters take on a "real life" identity, they are so well described that they appear in the minds eye. The story explores the culture and attitudes to behaviour and events, events which are separated by just one generation, straddling two continents. I thought the sexuality of one of the main characters an un-necessary distraction.
Jacqui - Methley Book Group

The Daughter of Maduri was an interesting and compelling read. It told the story of women in India and how they were not allowed to keep their babies if they were born female. It was disturbing to read that the women had no control over what happened when they had given birth to a girl. The two timelines and different stories came together very well and made the story believable and interesting. I was very pleased to have been given this book to read in my book club, which is in Methley West Yorkshire.