Gifted

by Nikita Lalwani

Rumi Vashey is 10 years, two months, 13 days, two hours, 42 minutes and six seconds old. The probability of her walking home from school with John Kemble is 0.2142, a probability severely reduced by the lacy frock and thick woollen tights she is forced to wear by her father. For Rumi is a gifted child and discipline is everything.

Genres: Fiction, India, Young Adult, Contemporary, Literary Fiction, Indian Literature, Book Club

272 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2007

About the author

Nikita Lalwani‘s work has been translated into sixteen languages. Her first novel, 'Gifted' – the story of a child prodigy of Indian origin growing up in Wales – was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize, shortlisted for the Costa First Novel Award and won the inaugural Desmond Elliott Prize for Fiction. Her second, 'The Village', was modelled on a real-life ‘prison village’ in northern India, and won a Jerwood Fiction Uncovered Prize. Her third novel 'You People' (2020), follows Tuli (the proprietor of an Italian restaurant) and his employee Shan who, having fled the Sri Lankan civil war, is desperate to find his family.

Reviews

[Gumble's Yard - Golden Reviewer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Story about Rumi – the mathematically gifted daughter of Mahesh (an Indian Maths lecturer at Cardiff University – driven by ambition to prove himself in the UK, by order and correctness and by the belief that given this anything is possible for his daughter with sufficient application by her and “tough” support by him) and his arranged wife Shreene (still resentful that her trip to UK seems permanent, that her father died before she could travel back and of Western society and its perceived immorality). Interestingly Shreene at various times complains (mainly to herself) of Mahesh’s progressiveness in encouraging ambition in a girl.

Rumi takes her O Level around 12 and then stays off from school around 14-5 to take her A-Level (there seems no mention of other subjects?) and wins a place at Oxford. Much of the book is set through her childhood and early teenage years including a crush on a fellow chess player and on her cousin in one of two trips back to India – a country which somehow seems to energise her. At Oxford, staying with a distant relative who acts as her driver and partial chaperone she has a romantic (although unconsummated evening) with a Muslim 18-year old. She finds solace in a bizarre Cumin seed fixation and in reading trashy fiction when she should be studying but (in what is very similar to “Dog in the Night Time”) hides her panic or insecurity or worry behind thinking obsessively of number patterns.

He dumps her the next time they meet after having discovered her age, but her parents in turn discover letters she has drafted to him. Their reaction to this as well as the pressure of a special exam (penal collection) she has to take at Oxford when her tutor realises she is studying cause her to abscond and claim “abuse”, the book ends with Shreene preparing to meet her again.

The simple implication is her struggle at Oxford is due to her desire to live a “normal” teenage life which she has hitherto been denied and certainly she seems desperate to meet some boys, but additionally it seems she struggles without her father’s regime to rebel against and possibly with the change to a much more theoretical form of maths with far less structured instruction.

Mahesh likes to produce logically argued lists and one of them is a list of themes that (to him) unexpectedly emerge in interviews – this list (religion; India’s long love affair with mathematics; Indian immigrant’s intense drive to achieve; Rumi’s entry into adolescence and potential love affairs) seems a convenient (if clumsily inserted) way of signalling the main meta-themes of the book.

A good and interesting book – although not entirely fulfilling or memorable.

[♏ Gina☽ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Most of us are quite aware of how old we are. Rumi knows how old she is too. However, she knows her age down to the seconds. She is a mathematical genius.

Her first day in school, her teacher asks to meet her parents. Her father, an Indian emigree, thoroughly endorses strict discipline for bringing her genius to total fruition. Rumi leads a very goal-oriented life from then on. Hours upon hours alone at the library, studying before dinner. She cannot leave the room except to use the restroom. Her parents begin an intense regimen for their daughter with the ultimate goal for her to be the youngest student ever to go to Oxford University.

However, children need more than being force fed curriculum. Although her parents truly believe they are doing the right thing, bringing her natural ability into the forefront, they are also stifling the child within.

This is the debut novel of Nikita Lalwani, and if it is any indication, there will be many more to come. It is well written and you will care about the characters, and feel deeply for the child in the book, along with her well-meaning parents who think they are doing what is right for their child.

[Joy D · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rumi Vasi is the daughter of Indian immigrants living in Cardiff in the 1980s. Her gift for mathematics is identified at an early age. Her parents want her to develop her gifts fully, so her father, an academic, establishes a strict study regimen that Rumi is expected to follow. The goal is to get her accepted by Oxford University as a teen. Rumi’s mother never planned to live in Wales and yearns to return to India. She wants to ensure Rumi remains true to her roots and does not adopt too many western traits. These parental desires put a great deal of pressure on Rumi. As she reaches adolescence, she longs to have a more “normal” life and do the things her friends are allowed to do.

This is a novel about identity, belonging, parental expectations, and giftedness. The author excels at portraying Rumi’s mathematical skills, and the way her gift influences her thought processes. The main conflict pits Rumi’s desire for independence against her parents’ need for control. The tension ramps up throughout the book until it reaches a breaking point. I enjoyed the first three quarters of the book but was a bit disappointed by the ending. It is a cautionary tale about the need for parents to ensure balance in their children’s lives. I felt drawn into the story despite feeling uncomfortable about how Rumi’s parents treated her.

[Tenli · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found this book uneven, but the raggedness with which the story unfolds is in some ways a perfect mirror for the way that this child's life gradually goes further and further off course. I appreciated that none of the deeply flawed main characters was portrayed a villain, and, in particular, how well the author captured Rumi's growing bafflement and chaotic inner experience.

[Emma · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ik vind het lastig om helder te krijgen wat ik nou eigenlijk van dit boek vind.

Mijn moeder probeert al minstens een decennium om me dit boek te laten lezen. Zelf zou ik dit niet zo snel hebben opgepakt. Allereerst hanteer ik de regel dat ik van oorsprong Engelse boeken in het Engels moet lezen, in plaats van een Nederlandse vertaling. Daarnaast vind ik het echte leven vaak al deprimerend genoeg, waarom zou ik er in mijn vrije tijd dan ook nog over lezen? Ik heb veel liever fantasy of verhalen die zich ver in het verleden afspelen. Juist omdat ik me persoonlijk niet met de wereld in dergelijke verhalen kan identificeren, trekken deze me aan.

Maar goed. Ik heb dit boek inmiddels gelezen en mijn moeder wil ongetwijfeld weten wat ik ervan vind, dus schrijf ik toch maar een review. In het Nederlands, zowaar. Dat we het nog mochten meemaken.

Wat betreft van het zetten van de sfeer en het creëren van realistische, overtuigende karakters is de schrijfster wat mij betreft zeker geslaagd. De grote culturele verschillen tussen India en het VK en de worsteling van Mahesh om zich te distantiëren van het stereotype van een migrant komen sterk naar voren, maar vrij subtiel. Het is aan de lezer zelf om deze te zien. Ik vond de wisselingen van perspectief telkens erg interessant, alsook de inzichten die ze gaven in de motivaties van respectievelijk Rumi, Mahesh en Shreene. Dat is nou juist het schrijnende in het hele verhaal: ze doen elk op hun eigen manier zo veel moeite voor hetgeen volgens hen het best is voor de ander, terwijl dit, als buitenstaander gezien, juist totaal niet zo is. Het moment waarop Rumi in de examenzaal zit en zich beseft, "dit is mijn leven niet," is misschien het krachtigste gedeelte in het boek. Ondanks haar isolatie en de eenzijdige idealen die ze vanuit haar gezin meekrijgt, lukte het haar om zelfstandig die conclusie te trekken en actie te ondernemen.

Nu deze review toch al zo lang is, laten we het ook gelijk maar even over de vertaling gaan hebben. Ik heb het originele Engelse boek niet ingezien, dus ik kan de kwaliteit van de vertaling niet volledig beoordelen. Toch vielen me hierin een aantal dingen op, die me doen afvragen of ik zelf simpelweg te veel Engelstalige fantasy lees en te weinig Nederlandse fictie, of dat het echt aan de vertaling ligt. Meerdere keren vond ik zinnen onnodig ingewikkeld en lang, waardoor het soms meerdere pogingen kostte om te achterhalen of ze gewoon wollig waren of daadwerkelijk structureel incorrect. Dit had in veel gevallen eenvoudig kunnen worden opgelost door zinnen te splitsen of opnieuw te structureren. Ook de veelgebruikte Oxford komma had op die manier vaak vermeden kunnen worden, maar over de eventuele noodzaak hiervan worden tot op de dag van vandaag nog debatten gevoerd, dus zal ik het daar verder maar niet meer over hebben.

Al met al denk ik dat dit, objectief gezien, een goed boek is. De wereld en karakters zijn relateerbaar en realistisch. Het boek leest redelijk makkelijk weg, al is het ook makkelijk om weg te zinken in alle wollige zinnen. Technisch gezien zou ik dit boek dus 4,5 sterren moeten toekennen, ware het niet dat een beoordeling uit nog een element bestaat: heb ik ervan genoten om dit te lezen? Ik weet het niet. Het verhaal zette me aan het denken en ik wilde telkens verder lezen, maar tegelijkertijd vond ik het deprimerend en kwam een thema dat voor mij persoonlijk vrij lastig is prominent naar voren. Om die reden maak ik er toch 3,5 sterren van, naar boven afgerond dus 4.

[Ron Charles · Rating 3 out of 5]

The day before school started this year, my wife received an e-mail from a student enrolled in her English class. He wanted to know if he could narrow the margins of his summer homework by a quarter of an inch because his answers were running long.

Such are the joys of teaching in the overachievement capital of the country. As the well-heeled and the big-brained dive back into schoolwork this month, I wish they (and especially their parents) would take a break to read this arresting new novel by Kikita Lalwani. Gifted-- the title grows more bitter with each chapter -- describes the plight of Rumi, an Indian girl in Cardiff, Wales, whose life is systematically destroyed by the drive for academic success.

To some extent, Gifted reminds me of Josiah Bunting's All Loves Excelling (2001), a melodramatic tale about a girl who works herself to death at a prestigious prep school. But Lalwani, a BBC documentary filmmaker, is a more subtle writer, and she's working on a much bigger canvas. Her sensitivity to the pressures felt by Indian immigrants calls to mind the work of such novelists as Zadie Smith and Monica Ali, writers who hear the humor amid the anxiety of integration.

What's particularly interesting in G ifted is the way Lalwani forces her characters to contend with cultural stereotypes. Rumi and her family know only too well how they're expected to act; the role of ambitious Indian immigrant is both applauded and mocked all around them. But despite their best efforts to step around these clich?s, they frequently humiliate themselves by playing right into them.

Early in the book, when Rumi is only 5, her teacher insists on visiting her parents at home to announce the exciting news that "Rumi is a gifted mathematician!" But her father, Mahesh, is baffled, then irritated. "I am also a mathematician," he tells the teacher as calmly as he can. "I am glad that she is doing well in this subject, as you say. I have placed emphasis on it because it is my area of specialty." Inside, though, he's seething: "What did she take him for? And why was she so surprised that he and his daughter could string numbers together with reasonable panache? They were hardly shopkeepers." He's offended by the term "gifted." To anyone who will listen, Mahesh insists that it is possible "through strength and discipline to create your own destiny using the power of thought." Rumi's teacher can sputter on however she'd like, but he knows there is no gift, no trick, no special dispensation -- there is only hard work.

Having always found the "gifted" label laughably imprecise and vaguely eugenic, I was immediately in Mahesh's camp, but what follows is the story of his disastrous attempt to make Rumi reach her potential. Driven by his faith in hard work and self-determination, Mahesh could put any local Edline addict to shame. He supervises every aspect of Rumi's education and regiments her study time with prison-like discipline, alternately insisting and assuming that she shares his goal for her: to be accepted into Oxford University before she turns 15.

Like most adolescents, Rumi is more interested in fitting in and preserving "her carefully arranged obscurity." She fantasizes about a romance with another chess geek and worries about her classmates. "If the whole friends things was like a Venn diagram," she thinks, "she wasn't even inside the outer circle." Only two other "brainboxes" ever talk with her, and "even then only outside the school boundaries or they ran the risk of being ridiculed."

At first, Lalwani mines this parent-child tension for some surprisingly charming humor -- a kind of "Bend It Like Euclid." Her father's strict rules, his efforts to make sure every activity has an improving quality to it, have a kind of absurd comedy about them. Her weekends are "timetabled to the maximum, the days compartmentalized into breaks and study like the black and white keys on a piano." Rumi commits slight infractions amid the "constant buzz of discipline." Left alone in the library, she dares to wander away from her textbook and read Pippi Longstocking. "It was always a pleasure soaked in guilt," she thinks.

But as Rumi grows older, Lalwani strips the comedy away, and "the sodden misery of the whole thing" weighs on the novel more and more. "I am a weirdo," Rumi realizes, as she continues to see the world in terms of equations and patterns. Torn between pleasing her parents and nurturing her soul, she falls into a series of bizarre tics and self-destructive habits, signs of distress that someone would have noticed if everyone around her wasn't so impressed by her mathematical prowess.

Lalwani handles Rumi's parents with the same insight, which usually keeps them from seeming like villains. Mahesh has nothing but his daughter's best interests in mind, no matter how misguided his method. And he clearly adores her. One morning he rises early and watches through a crack in the door as she sleeps, "feeling the claustrophobic muffle of a love he could not express."

Rumi's mother, meanwhile, never imagined she'd end up living permanently in the West. She's not gotten used to the smugness of her white colleagues, the horrible food, the casual sex. She endures moments of "sudden desolation" in this strange and judgmental place. As much as she wants to raise Rumi outside the restrictive ideals of her own parents back in India, she's panicked by the startling immorality of modern culture. Trying to keep Rumi on the straight and narrow, she even descends to "archaic warnings that had infuriated her when she was growing up." In one heartbreaking scene, she shrieks at Rumi's innocent questions about human biology: "That is not how our babies are born. Only white people have sex."

The parts of this novel are better than the whole, which tends to shift tones too erratically. But Lalwani does a number of things extremely well here. She won't let us settle back in comfortable judgment on this family. Mahesh's behavior seems to confirm the worst slurs about a "money-hungry immigrant, desperate to profit from his daughter's ability . . . [and] subvert the freethinking traditions of the West." But Lalwani also lashes out at Western bias with its "priggish outrage." The result is a tragic coming-of-age story full of the mingled love and anger that animate families of every culture.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/...

[Emma Kaufmann · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very moving and emotive account of a young Indian girl in the UK who is hothoused to achieve academic greatness while at the same time cracking up under familial pressure while desperately just wanting to fit in with her peers.

[Kkraemer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Perhaps because I am a teacher, this book raised issues I'd long thought about but never followed through to their reasonable end
At age 5, Rumi is clearly thinking in math. Where most of us look at the world and select words to describe it, she looks at patterns and ascribes numbers to it. She then plays with the numbers: if there are 10 of something and 9 of something, she asks herself, what are the odds that they intersect if placed on 5 different planes and have curved lines amongst them? How might a bag of something be divided amongst 7 bags? how might it look if split into 3? What might it look like if it were inflated to 2.3 x its normal size?
People notice.
Her father, though, says that it's not a "gift;" it's simply hard work. He believes that parents who teach and talk with their children will have children who learn whatever they can. It's not something to wait for. It's something to work for.
At 10, Rumi is in advanced maths, and at 14, she sits for her A levels. Her dad, a math professor, has helped her. He's given her problem sets, explained how to concentrate and study, devoted himself to supporting her.
and at 15, Rumi is completely lost.
This is a fascinating and completely believable story about a girl who speaks math in a world that speaks of cultures, faiths, values, expectations, and the roles of women and men. Not to be missed.

[Alesa · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a really haunting story about a girl whose parents are from India, and how they push her to become a child prodigy in math. It asks a lot of really important questions, such as, "When is it appropriate to force a child to explore their talents, and when does this turn into abuse?" "How important is it for a gifted child to have a normal childhood, versus seeing how far their talents will take them?"

It brought up some painful memories from my childhood. And it helped me assess my extreme ambivalence about forcing my own children to achieve their highest potential, because of emotional issues from my past. Maybe that's why I've always liked Montessori's philosophy so much. She taught that we can trust children's own inner wisdom to guide them through "sensitive periods," when they're ready to learn, and our job as adults is simply to provide an enriched environment, and encouragement, so they can unfold at their own speed.

It was painful to read how the girl's father failed to do this. And the voice of the "unreliable narrator", who questions herself so deeply, was a good reminder about how children internalize abuse, and assume that every unpleasantness is their own fault.

[Kathryn · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read this book quickly but found myself thinly satisfied at the end. Rumi's character and internal life were flat and undeveloped; the author attempted but fell short of her target. I felt a detachment from all the characters. I felt I was reading descriptions instead of internal experiences of consciousness. In fact, it reminded me of a psychological case study rather than a story.[return][return]For a woman as sheltered as Rumi, the scenario with the Muslim college student rang false. She was entirely too confident for someone as socially unskilled as her character is.[return][return]I did enjoy that she made an escape from her straightjacketed life in the end. The potential reconciliation suggested by her agreement to meet with her mother seemed gratuitous, though. The mother was the least sympathetic character in the story. (And I think the relationship dynamic between the husband and wife had such potential for the story but was neglected.)[return][return]Still, the novel had enough power to keep me reading until the end. Lalwani has potential but needs to more fully develop her characters. I would not read this book again, nor would I keep it, but I did pass it along to a friend to read.

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

The writing in Gifted is so interesting and subtle. The only disappointment for me was the ending,which I didn't think fit the characters.

[Deb (Readerbuzz) Nance · Rating 4 out of 5]

I didn’t get inside the head of the main character as much as I might have wished. The author did better getting inside the head of the parents of the main character, especially the mother. The main character is prodded and pushed, scheduled and organized, from the time she enters school by her parents. As one might expect, the prodding and pushing has deleterious results.

[Carolin · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was a great eye opener to see life through a gifted child. I could not wait to finish the book. As a parent and school district employee, I was constantly questioning my tactics in making the kids do their work.

[Lisa]

Gifted is a reminder that Cardiff is a multicultural city. Wales isn't known for having a diverse population, but a search tells me that Cardiff is different because of its trading links, postwar migration and foreign students attending university.   Trezza Azzopardi's The Hiding Place (2000) (which I read for Reading Wales in 2022) featured a Maltese-Welsh family whose father was a dockworker, and was set in the postwar era.   In Gifted, the ambitious Indian father of a daughter gifted in mathematics, is an academic at the University of Swansea, a subset of the University of Wales.

Mahesh is a bit of a snob.  When he feels patronised by a well-meaning teacher who suggests Mensa for his daughter Rumi (Rumika), the narration shows us the thoughts he represses:

What preconceptions did she bring with her — this queer-spoken woman with her little smiles and polite contradictions? He was not going to make a grand statement.  It would only confuse things.  But if he could, he would tell her everything.  He would tell her he'd got into all their universities — all the bloody jewels they treasured so exclusively in this country: that he had been offered a place at their Cambridge and their UCL [University College London].  He had ended up in Cardiff because they had offered the cash — several pounds of it, a sum that no one could deny for its totality.  Full fees.  They had wanted him here, a foreigner with no more than five pounds in his pocket and a slip of a wife, bare-toed and shivering.  That was how he had got off the plane in 1972, newly wed and aware, dignified by the patronage of their red-brick institutions, sure as a compass, leading the way for them both.

He had not been among the thirty thousand Asians haemorrhaging out of the ugly scar in Uganda's belly that same year, seeping into the dark spaces of Britain, afloat in the soiled bathwater of Amin's shake-up: the crawling masses who had fallen into the pockets of Leicester and Wembley. (p.8)

Actually, he is patronising her because she is 'only' a primary school teacher, doing her best to cater for this gifted child's intellectual and social needs.

We are not meant to like Mahesh, a self-made man who bullies his wife Shreene and children.

To read the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2025/02/25/g...

[Samiksha · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book depicts the classic struggle of the Asian immigrants in their western dreamlands. The immigrant generation is happy to embrace a new, better life in the new world and relish in its comforts. This generation is very happy and also proud to fit in the society, until the next generation becomes an obvious factor.

This is when,the immigrant generation - now responsible parents; want to have all of above without letting go of its roots far away in the home land. They desperately try to grab its own culture in a foreign country so that the next generation does not turn into an 'Angrez' or 'American'. The next generation, however cannot be shielded from an exposure to a new way of life. The same life that the immigrant generation craved for and is deprived of, the next generation breathes and lives in... and that is when things go wrong... The struggle within the families leaves everyone broken and devastated.

Rumika Vasi, the gifted daughter of Shrene and Mahesh is trapped in the similar situation. The book reminds of the case in late 1990’s, when a 13-year-old math prodigy, Sufiah Yusof, made headlines in England as one of the youngest students ever admitted to Oxford. But her immigrant father insisted she wasn’t particularly gifted, crediting her success to a strict program of home schooling designed to shield her from the “dangerous, shallow illusions” of Western culture. This regimen included keeping the house cold to sharpen concentration and banning American sitcoms and soaps — which, her father warned, “stir up the emotions.” Rumika's love for maths and desire to have a normal teenager's life with fun and friends , her desperation for company , heart wrenching longing for love and laugh may be the story of many next generation children in the 'foreign countries' today.

What we call foreign is home for these new kids on the block. The struggle will ease only when this fact is accepted by the families and parents of these children. The evident struggle of the attempt to bring them back to culture and roots by their families is aptly captured by the author. The story keeps you riveted and at a point , I really wanted poor Rumi to have someone in her life who would allow her to live and love and be herself. A sorry and sad end as expected. The end is also left open without any conclusion... and I am not very happy when a really nice book leaves you to guess what would have happened. A nice read overall...

[Kitty · Rating 3 out of 5]

tegelikult mulle see raamat ülemäära ei meeldinud, aga ega ta halb ka ei olnud. lihtsalt veidi nagu... meh.

ja mulle tundub et ma lugesin siit välja mingeid hoopis teisi asju kui teised lugejad/arvustajad. see lugu peaks rääkima ühest matemaatiliselt andekast tüdrukust, aga minu meelest ei saa tema andekus selles loos erilist kinnitust. jah, tema esimese klassi õpetaja arvab, et ta on geenius, aga tema isa arvab, et anne ei loe midagi, tööd tuleb teha. ja seda tööd tehakse, sest isa on immigrant ja matemaatik ja tal on nii soov kui võimalus seda last üsna lõputult piitsutada. ja ma olen isaga nõus, pole võimalik, et selline pühendumus ei viiks sihile, nii et jaa, neiu sooritab A-leveli matemaatikaeksami 14-aastaselt ja alustab 15-selt Oxfordi ülikoolis.

(oot, aga teised õppeained? midagi pidi ta ju veel õppima, ta ei saanud kogu ülejäänud keskharidust lihtsalt vahele jätta? isegi kui sai, miks Oxford teda sellisena tahtma pidanuks? aga sellest osast ei ole siin juttu absoluutselt.)

ja ma ei tea, ma ei näe seda andekust või erilist matemaatikaarmastust või -kirge siin loos mitte kusagil. lihtsalt õpitakse ja harjutatakse kogu aeg, üsna askeetlikes (et mitte öelda ebainimlikes) tingimustes - lapsele on keelatud kogu sotsiaalne suhtlus ja kogu perekond käib ta ümber kikivarvul, sest "Rumika peab õppima" ja kogu aeg on külm, sest isa arvab, et aju töötab siis paremini. ja sinna õnnetusse Oxfordi saadetakse see õnnetu teismeline mingi võhivõõra naise juurde elama. kõrvalliinina näeme ka seda, kuidas (ja miks) ema kogu projekti kuidagi sekkuda ei tihka, kuigi tema meelest on kogu see õppimine tütarlapse jaoks üldse sobimatu, sest lõpuks on nagunii plaan ta lihtsalt mehele panna ju. oh, ja siis see vaene väikevend, kellest mul on vb veel kõige rohkem kahju.

ilmselgelt paistab kaugele ette ära, mis traumaga see kõik lõppeb, nii et ega mul umbes poolelt maalt edasi polnud suuremat tuju lugeda, aga eks ma ikka lugesin lõpuni.

kuna see India päritolu pere (nagu ka raamatu autor) elab Cardiffis, siis loeb see Walesi kirjandusena, aga midagi Walesi-spetsiifilist ma siin ei märganud. tavaline kaheksakümnendate briti äng :)

[Spruha · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think that the concept of this book was really interesting - a teenage math prodigy discovering herself and the world around her. I think it really showed how kids are kids, and what terrible results can come of prematurely bestowing adulthood on them. The protagonist, Rumika Vasi, is an adolescent girl, making not-so-good decisions (like most of us!), although her parents expect a lot more out of someone who has entered Oxford at age 15. While I think the plot itself was a unique one, the smaller plot points were what put me off. For example, a lot of what the book focused on were her romantic escapades. Don't get me wrong, I love romance! But this could have been approached better. It gave off the feeling that growing up, was discovering romance - which I don't really agree with. I kinda wish that the author had focused more on Rumi as a character and how she became her own individual (without the help of hooking up with both her cousin and a 20 year old guy that is!). Along with that there were also some parts that seemed a bit too unrealistic. All in all this was a nice, light read with the exception of some details!

- :)

[Lakmus]

DNF.

Not what I was looking for - a disappointing lack of mathematics. From the half of the book that I did read, it's unclear why it was necessary to make Rumi a math prodigy - which does not manifest in any way except neurotic counting and off-screen high test scores; she's more of a walking calculator than any kind of a math fan/nerd/appreciator. It's more a story of immigrants and great expectations that can be placed on smart children and the ridiculous amounts of pressure that come from conflicting demands of parents, culture A, and culture B. She might have as well been a normal-ish teen pressured to both study for a top university and keep to old-country standards of being a person - it would have made little difference, even to the portrayals of control and abuse. I am not sure if this does or does not say anything new or insightful about the struggles of growing up a child of immigrants, I've read enough of these stories in literature and on the internet. The woes are many, bitter-sweetness pervasive.

[Joy Ramlogan · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Gifted" makes the reader think about what it means to be an immigrant in Wales - from India, mixing in the society and rejected by it and striving to do super well. I think Mahesh, Sherene and the gifted child, Rumi are all victims here. Mahesh loves his daughter and tries to impose his own ambition and hard work mantras on his young daughter who is bright enough and ready to please. Sherene resents being in Wales and softens the parenting though she is bewildered by the conflict between preserving the East and making one's way in the West. The narrative is uneven in places and as Rumi goes along, her outbursts get more and more erratic. So much so I thought she would commit suicide. The epilogue has a dream like quality to it, may have been better to end with Rumi jumping on the train rather than being told she ran away and asked to stay away from her parents for protection. Wildly scarily truthful in narrative and insufficient in character development on the whole.

[Robert Meyer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Some books just erupt. You cannot put them down. This is one.

Giddy and sad. Adult and childish. Intellectual and romantic. Western and Eastern. All in one character.

Perhaps one of fiction's greatest constructions of a teenage girl.

I have one sibling and two parents who started university at a similar age. The guy did well. The girls not as well. Mom followed the protagonust's path. Sibling made it, scarred.

What seems so simple is often so complex. And, in the era of helicopter parenting, glossed by Tiger Mom concepts, this book shows us that parents need to live their own lives and be more observant of their children's. Not easy to ask ourselves. Not easy to do.

A British Indian girl's Greek tragedy.

Side note: many of the stereotypical Indian teenage concepts here transcend in a recently made (camp but fun comedy) movie called "Plan B." This book is sad. The movie, addressing similar issues, is very funny. Kind of "Harold and Kumar" on estrogen, and younger.

[Siobhan Markwell · Rating 3 out of 5]

This original book takes us into the world of maths genius Rumi Vasi. Her prodigal talent doesn't win her fans in the school playground and, somewhat predictably, her Indian heritage family don't want to play ball when it comes to her ambitions to spend time with boys or have any but the mildest form of fun. The book explores where parental ambition and support segues into abuse and Rumi, rather unbelievably, develops a bad-ass cumin seed habit. This attempt to find an anodyne and virtuous form of self-harm that the modern Asian girl can espouse without being too unbelievably sullied by nasty British habits didn't ring true but her adventures with a Sikh boy at Oxford did. His rage on discovering she is a locally famous, under-age virtuoso is on point and moving. Lalwani avoids the pitfalls of a cliched ending and provides plenty of grist to the mill of the pushy parent narrative.

[Cath · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wish I had read the Reader's questions at the back first to provide some focus on elements I did not necessarily pay close enough attention to. This novel was difficult to read, as a parent and teacher. Rumi's father stole her childhood and basically her life for fifteen years, even though he believed he was doing the best for her. Shreene's complicity and treatment of the daughter, who she loved deeply, emphasized her own unhappiness and lack of individuality and freedom in her marriage. Rumi reminded me of many of my students who hide behind their cutting, poor grades, bad attitude, lack of effort, yet tell no one of the challenges or pressures that they are facing at home.

An powerful novel about culture, giftedness, individualism, impact of parenting and control. Wow!

[Agatha · Rating 4 out of 5]

The story of a mathematically talented young Indian girl who is growing up in Cardiff, Wales. Her traditional Indian parents have a very strict study schedule for her to ensure that she fulfills her talent, and they dream of her becoming the youngest (age 14) student ever to pass her O levels (and then go onto Oxford University). Gradually, however, as she grows older, she not surprisingly begins to rebel more and more against their restrictions. A coming of age novel which also examines cultural differences / the immigrant experience.

[Regina · Rating 3 out of 5]

Don't know whether to give this 3 or 4 stars, so I guess I'll settle on 3,5.
This book really provoked me in a lot of ways. I felt sorry for many of the characters and just wanted to scream and tell them reason (but obviously, they cannot listen). I read this for my contemporary multicultural British literature course, and the more we talked about the book, the more I appreciated it.
If you want an insight into an Indian 'immigrant' family's way of living, this is an enjoyable (and frustrating) read. Definitely recommend!

[Melissa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Had to think about this book for a while before writing my review. I am not sure if I liked the book but was intrigued by it. Would this have been the same book if Rumi was not from India? Did the author portray cultural life correctly that prides academics over a more " normal" childhood. Was she really gifted? I see many parents in my job and wonder are any of them pushing and cajoling their children this hard. So many teen have anxiety and depression today are parents or culture or both to blame. So many questions none answered.

[Rrshively · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is well-written with excellent word choice. It just wasn't the type of story that grabs me. An immigrant Indian couple in Wales has a daughter gifted in mathematics. The father takes over her life through her early admission to Oxford at age 15. This is a good warning tale to parents of gifted children no matter the ethnicity or country. Let your child live a normal child's and teen's life in spite of their giftedness. I picked up this book at a Little Free Library and am not sorry I read it, but it's just okay for my taste in reading.

[Eli · Rating 3 out of 5]

As an avid reader of Desi fiction, I eagerly awaited my AR copy of the book. The work was engaging; I couldn't put it down and was not bored for a moment from start to finish. The starkness of the third-person narrative does lend itself well to the tightness of the plot and the readability of the book, but does disappoint when it comes to the characters, as many of them, although realistic, are not quite developed enough. The ambiguity of the ending delighted me. All in all, an excellent read that shows the potential of the author, whose next work I await with eagerness.

[Ivonne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Es una novela no muy complicada de leer, manera un vocabulario aceptable. La trama en sí no me atrapó mucho, pero puede que a muchos sí les guste, ya que es la historia de una adolescente con una inteligencia insuperable que es negada de su libertad a causa de su cultura y su religión. Vamos, que a todos nos ha pasado alguna vez, no pongo una mala calificación porque sí, puede que hasta se convierta en una historia real, pero no pasa de ahí. No tiene un agregado.

[Jenn · Rating 3 out of 5]

The story was compelling enough, and there was a sort of fit between the uneven style and the narrative. But ultimately it was a character novel and the central character just felt too closed off for me to really get into it. I liked some of the maths facts and I would have liked more of that and more of a view into Rumi's mind.

[Jade Crowell · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think this is a good story. It was very well written. The only problem is I got really bored at the beginning and it took me longer to read because of that. However, I loved the ending and found the ending left closure.