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What Lies Between Us
In the idyllic hill country of Sri Lanka, a young girl grows up with her loving family; but even in the midst of this paradise, terror lurks in the shadows. When tragedy strikes, she and her mother must seek safety by immigrating to America. There the girl reinvents herself as an American teenager to survive, with the help of her cousin; but even as she assimilates and thrives, the secrets and scars of her past follow her into adulthood. In this new country of freedom, everything she has built begins to crumble around her, and her hold on reality becomes more and more tenuous. When the past and the present collide, she sees only one terrible choice.
310 pages, Hardcover
First published February 16, 2016
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7591 people want to read
About the author
Nayomi Munaweera
9 books402 followersNayomi Munaweera’s debut novel, Island of a Thousand Mirror was long-listed for the Man Asia Literary Prize and the Dublin IMPAC Prize. It won the Commonwealth Regional Prize for Asia and was short-listed for the Northern California Book Award. Publisher’s Weekly wrote, “Munaweera’s… lyrical debut novel [is] worthy of shelving alongside her countryman Michael Ondaatje or her fellow writer of the multigenerational immigrant experience, Jhumpa Lahiri.” The New York Times Book review called the novel, “incandescent.”
Nayomi’s second novel, What Lies Between Us will be released in February 2016 and has been receiving early accolades as one of 2016’s most anticipated books.
More at www.nayomimunaweera.com
Nayomi’s second novel, What Lies Between Us will be released in February 2016 and has been receiving early accolades as one of 2016’s most anticipated books.
More at www.nayomimunaweera.com
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 515 reviews
June 6, 2016
I don't know if I just started paying more attention to book covers or if they have just gotten so much better but I've seen some fantastic covers recently. I love the cover on this one. Gorgeous!!!
The book begins with an unnamed woman sitting in her jail cell. She confesses to us how she has done the unthinkable, that she is the worst thing possible. That she is a bad mother. However, she tells us that we only think we know her story and why she did what she did. That she will tell us her story but in her time, her words from the beginning, when she was the child and not yet the mother.
This book made me think about motherhood in ways I'd never have expected.
"Motherhood is, if anything, the assumption of perfection".
She says how many mothers can sit back and judge her because she has committed an act so horrendous that other mothers are relieved because they have not failed in the way she has.
The narrator was born and lived in the hill country of Sri Lanka. We still don't know her name but she's often referred to as Baby Madame. On the surface her childhood looks idyllic. She has the love of her mother and father. She plays in the beautiful country, eating guava fresh that she's pulled right off of the tree. She learns how to swim with her father. Spends time at school getting an education and spends time playing games like hide and seek with her friends and cousins. It's not long though that we begin to see the cracks in this "perfect childhood".
Her mother, who has moods that swing back and forth, leaving the child to wonder what her mother will do next. Will she sing and dance with her laughing and playing? Then all of a sudden push her away because the child's feet aren't in perfect rhythm. Will her mother make her breakfast or stay locked in her room for days at a time. She knows during these times that she must be quiet, must not make any noise, and let her mother rest. Her father tells her that her mother is "delicate" and that she needs to be treated carefully. Her father who prefers to hide in his study with his glass of arrack.
The anxiety that all this would create in a child. I can see how this would cause a child to fear disappointing her mother. Would do anything to keep her mother from looking at her with disapproval. That she would keep secrets instead of trusting that her mother would help. The delicate mother. Instead she will continue to keep quiet, not disturb, and be good.
"You could pretend certain things weren't happening even when you had seen or felt them. Everything done can be denied".
When tragedy strikes, child and mother move to America. They will start over, a new life. She will live as a normal American teenager and have a normal life. However, the secrets and trauma from her childhood stay with her. Haunting her as she tries to live her new life.
How much does childhood trauma affect our adult lives?
I've often thought of how lucky I am. So many things that I can't even imagine happening. For example living in a place where if you are in the wrong area you can be stopped and only watch helplessly as a family member is dragged away or even being dragged away yourself. A place where as a woman you have no rights. Where you can bring shame down on your family so easily.
"Shame is female; shame is the price I must pay for this body"
Reading this novel I felt as though I was put through an emotional wringer. At times I was horrified, angry, sad and completely heartbroken. It provoked thoughts in me that I wasn't expecting. Dark and horrifying but at times also beautiful and hopeful. I knew from the description that I was in for an emotional read but I was in no way prepared for just how emotional it would be. There is no doubt that this book will remain with me for a very long time.
"This is the story of what it means to be both a child of a mother and a child of history"
Exceptionally well-written with such well-developed characters. It gripped me from beginning to the very end. This is the first novel by Nayomi Munaweera that I have read but it won't be my last.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for my honest review.
The book begins with an unnamed woman sitting in her jail cell. She confesses to us how she has done the unthinkable, that she is the worst thing possible. That she is a bad mother. However, she tells us that we only think we know her story and why she did what she did. That she will tell us her story but in her time, her words from the beginning, when she was the child and not yet the mother.
This book made me think about motherhood in ways I'd never have expected.
"Motherhood is, if anything, the assumption of perfection".
She says how many mothers can sit back and judge her because she has committed an act so horrendous that other mothers are relieved because they have not failed in the way she has.
The narrator was born and lived in the hill country of Sri Lanka. We still don't know her name but she's often referred to as Baby Madame. On the surface her childhood looks idyllic. She has the love of her mother and father. She plays in the beautiful country, eating guava fresh that she's pulled right off of the tree. She learns how to swim with her father. Spends time at school getting an education and spends time playing games like hide and seek with her friends and cousins. It's not long though that we begin to see the cracks in this "perfect childhood".
Her mother, who has moods that swing back and forth, leaving the child to wonder what her mother will do next. Will she sing and dance with her laughing and playing? Then all of a sudden push her away because the child's feet aren't in perfect rhythm. Will her mother make her breakfast or stay locked in her room for days at a time. She knows during these times that she must be quiet, must not make any noise, and let her mother rest. Her father tells her that her mother is "delicate" and that she needs to be treated carefully. Her father who prefers to hide in his study with his glass of arrack.
The anxiety that all this would create in a child. I can see how this would cause a child to fear disappointing her mother. Would do anything to keep her mother from looking at her with disapproval. That she would keep secrets instead of trusting that her mother would help. The delicate mother. Instead she will continue to keep quiet, not disturb, and be good.
"You could pretend certain things weren't happening even when you had seen or felt them. Everything done can be denied".
When tragedy strikes, child and mother move to America. They will start over, a new life. She will live as a normal American teenager and have a normal life. However, the secrets and trauma from her childhood stay with her. Haunting her as she tries to live her new life.
How much does childhood trauma affect our adult lives?
I've often thought of how lucky I am. So many things that I can't even imagine happening. For example living in a place where if you are in the wrong area you can be stopped and only watch helplessly as a family member is dragged away or even being dragged away yourself. A place where as a woman you have no rights. Where you can bring shame down on your family so easily.
"Shame is female; shame is the price I must pay for this body"
Reading this novel I felt as though I was put through an emotional wringer. At times I was horrified, angry, sad and completely heartbroken. It provoked thoughts in me that I wasn't expecting. Dark and horrifying but at times also beautiful and hopeful. I knew from the description that I was in for an emotional read but I was in no way prepared for just how emotional it would be. There is no doubt that this book will remain with me for a very long time.
"This is the story of what it means to be both a child of a mother and a child of history"
Exceptionally well-written with such well-developed characters. It gripped me from beginning to the very end. This is the first novel by Nayomi Munaweera that I have read but it won't be my last.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for my honest review.
March 30, 2016
I was hypnotized by Munaweera's prose in an Island of a Thousand Mirrors. She again skillfully and masterfully sweeps us into the lush island of Sri Lanka. But the beauty of the island is contrasted by the horrific and unimaginable crime that is committed against a child and the story unfolds across continents as a confession is told.
The narrative begins with Ganga's childhood. Except we are never told her name until it is revealed at the end, told from the confines of her cell. She reflects on her difficult upbringing with a mother who had wild mood swings; her own feelings of confusion and abandonment and then shame as she becomes a weapon of someone else's rage -a betrayal of trust. Too many buried secrets. A broken child becomes a broken adult until she becomes a broken mother. Sometimes the darkness envelops one until the only sign of light, is death.
My heart squeezes for this child woman and the pain and suffering she endured. No one condones violence against a child but here we get a glimpse into a tortured mind and see why she may have done what she did.
Another phenomenal 5★
The narrative begins with Ganga's childhood. Except we are never told her name until it is revealed at the end, told from the confines of her cell. She reflects on her difficult upbringing with a mother who had wild mood swings; her own feelings of confusion and abandonment and then shame as she becomes a weapon of someone else's rage -a betrayal of trust. Too many buried secrets. A broken child becomes a broken adult until she becomes a broken mother. Sometimes the darkness envelops one until the only sign of light, is death.
My heart squeezes for this child woman and the pain and suffering she endured. No one condones violence against a child but here we get a glimpse into a tortured mind and see why she may have done what she did.
Another phenomenal 5★
January 16, 2016
In the beginning we meet a woman whose name we do not know . She's in prison and we don't know why but she is about to tell us . I wanted to read this because I loved the author's debut novel , Island of a Thousand Mirrors. The writing is even more beautiful, more rich in description and I found myself in Sri Lanka once again.
These seem to be quiet days in the life of a young girl, from a privileged family. Although her mother grew up in poverty , her father is a university professor and they live a comfortable life with servants. There's civil war going on in the north and east of the island but it is removed from her, and not near where she lives , but the horrifying things happening to her become her own private war . When a tragedy occurs , the young girl and her mother flee to America to start a new life. Further into the book , I realized that I still did not know her name .
You could say at one level that this is about the culture , the traditions, the deep rooted views on how one should live their life , about how families should be, how marriages are arranged, how it matters how one is viewed by others, how this all is so different in America and how a teenage girl who comes to America from Sri Lanka with her troubled and grieving mother must cope . So you might say this is about the immigrant experience on one level and also about mothers and daughters and who you are and how you fit in , about love . All of these things are depicted here , but underlying it all , it's always about what happens to a young girl and how it has haunted her through her whole life .
In the end we know her name and what she did and what in truth happened to her . To say that its heartbreaking and disturbing , such a sad, sad story somehow doesn't seem adequate but it is definitively a beautifully written one that I won't forget about .
Thanks to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for this advance copy .
These seem to be quiet days in the life of a young girl, from a privileged family. Although her mother grew up in poverty , her father is a university professor and they live a comfortable life with servants. There's civil war going on in the north and east of the island but it is removed from her, and not near where she lives , but the horrifying things happening to her become her own private war . When a tragedy occurs , the young girl and her mother flee to America to start a new life. Further into the book , I realized that I still did not know her name .
You could say at one level that this is about the culture , the traditions, the deep rooted views on how one should live their life , about how families should be, how marriages are arranged, how it matters how one is viewed by others, how this all is so different in America and how a teenage girl who comes to America from Sri Lanka with her troubled and grieving mother must cope . So you might say this is about the immigrant experience on one level and also about mothers and daughters and who you are and how you fit in , about love . All of these things are depicted here , but underlying it all , it's always about what happens to a young girl and how it has haunted her through her whole life .
In the end we know her name and what she did and what in truth happened to her . To say that its heartbreaking and disturbing , such a sad, sad story somehow doesn't seem adequate but it is definitively a beautifully written one that I won't forget about .
Thanks to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for this advance copy .
February 3, 2016
The long reach of the past and the unreliability of memory are two prominent themes of this novel. Our unnamed narrator, though in Sri Lanka she was known as baby Madame, is the main character and we follow her life from a young child in Sri Lanka to adulthood in the USA. From the beginning we know she has done something terrible but we don't know why or how. This is one of those books that I believe the less said the better.
So I will just say the descriptions are lush, the prose is amazing and the inner thoughts of our character is well displayed. Whether the reader will understand her actions is up to the reader, the author gratefully keeps her opinions away from the written page. This is both a sad and beautiful book. In Sri Lanka out narrator finds both beauty and terror, in the USA she finds how difficult it is to fit in when you are different. Here she will also find love and heartache.
This is a first rate novel from an author who keeps getting better and better. Would make for a great book discussion because I am sure everyone will have a different opinion of our narrator and her actions. Would be interesting to see who falls where.
ARC from netgalley.
So I will just say the descriptions are lush, the prose is amazing and the inner thoughts of our character is well displayed. Whether the reader will understand her actions is up to the reader, the author gratefully keeps her opinions away from the written page. This is both a sad and beautiful book. In Sri Lanka out narrator finds both beauty and terror, in the USA she finds how difficult it is to fit in when you are different. Here she will also find love and heartache.
This is a first rate novel from an author who keeps getting better and better. Would make for a great book discussion because I am sure everyone will have a different opinion of our narrator and her actions. Would be interesting to see who falls where.
ARC from netgalley.
January 7, 2018
FULL VIDEO REVIEW AT THIS LINK!
My heart has been ripped out of my chest. This is absolutely one of my favorite books of the year. I was writing quotes down in a notebook that I didn’t want to forget and I had to stop because I was basically writing the entire book down. The author accomplishes so much with just one word choice, one phrase, one sentence. This, to me, is a sign of impeccable writing. It’s clean, crisp, and tight, yet deep and layered. To have 300 pages of this emotional turbulence was both joyous and devastating. This is a book I’ll never, ever forget and I feel changed and moved by it.
This was also the December pick for my book club, Storytime with Squibbles and I didn’t think I could top my October and November picks but I think this has done it. I feel destroyed (in the best way possible).
My heart has been ripped out of my chest. This is absolutely one of my favorite books of the year. I was writing quotes down in a notebook that I didn’t want to forget and I had to stop because I was basically writing the entire book down. The author accomplishes so much with just one word choice, one phrase, one sentence. This, to me, is a sign of impeccable writing. It’s clean, crisp, and tight, yet deep and layered. To have 300 pages of this emotional turbulence was both joyous and devastating. This is a book I’ll never, ever forget and I feel changed and moved by it.
This was also the December pick for my book club, Storytime with Squibbles and I didn’t think I could top my October and November picks but I think this has done it. I feel destroyed (in the best way possible).
May 1, 2016
The reader knows WHAT LIES BETWEEN US will end badly from the very start with the confession of an incarcerated, disturbed mother who commits an unforgivable crime believing she is performing the act of a savior. This beautifully written novel of abuse and tragedy begins in Sri Lanka with the mother's own story as a young girl, and continues as they move to America out of necessity and hope for a better future.
This is not a particularly enjoyable read, but one filled with the anguish and despair of a damaged young unmarried woman headed on a path to destruction.
Devastatingly sad.
June 1, 2016
Wonderful descriptions of Sri Lanka and San Francisco....where the main character
immigrates as a young girl with her widowed mother after the horrific death of her father.
Desperately trying to assimilate to American ways - her past secrets follow her - which leads to tragedy.
The story is told in first person present tense.....making the storytelling very intimate - more emotional - and more horrendous.
The ending is presented to us at the start ....at least we are 95% sure anyway...but as we dive deep into the unfolding of the story...the more horrific the reality of this tragedy -(confession) -is.
There are already many outstanding reviews - (read and written before me).
This book is as heartbreaking, beautifully written....and devastating as readers are saying. A hard story to forget.
I've already met Nayomi Munaweera twice this year....and I'll see her again this coming week-end.
Nayomi said...."this is the story she wanted to write because she never read stories like this growing up".
immigrates as a young girl with her widowed mother after the horrific death of her father.
Desperately trying to assimilate to American ways - her past secrets follow her - which leads to tragedy.
The story is told in first person present tense.....making the storytelling very intimate - more emotional - and more horrendous.
The ending is presented to us at the start ....at least we are 95% sure anyway...but as we dive deep into the unfolding of the story...the more horrific the reality of this tragedy -(confession) -is.
There are already many outstanding reviews - (read and written before me).
This book is as heartbreaking, beautifully written....and devastating as readers are saying. A hard story to forget.
I've already met Nayomi Munaweera twice this year....and I'll see her again this coming week-end.
Nayomi said...."this is the story she wanted to write because she never read stories like this growing up".
February 16, 2016
This is an exceptional piece of writing that draws you in with it's subtlety and exceptional charactors.
Told in first person, the first chapter opens with an unnamed woman in prison. She admits to what put her there, and it's a horrible, horrible crime. But its hard to feel the weight of her crime so early on, not knowing who she is, how or why it happened. But not to worry, because she has decided to share her story, which starts early on, when she is just a baby herself...
So starts the rest of the chapters, almost like a coming of age story. There is love, there is sickness, there is laughter, there is sadness. After a family tragedy, what is left of her family heads to the US. There she tries to find her way, blend in, yet stand out.
Similar to her early years, there is love, there is sickness, there is laughter, there is sadness...but it's the ghosts of the past that take a hold of how this woman handles her demons in the future.
There are some moments in this time frame that are a bit long and I wanted the story to move on, but it's her story to tell, and the pace actually seemed to make the ending pop even more for me.
Huge bonus points for the surprise twist towards the end--absolutely did not see that coming.
I grabbed this book on a whim while 'shopping' in NetGalley, certainly not expecting this book to have the impact it had on me. I was so touched by the life of this unnamed woman and even though I knew the sad outcome, I still couldn't help but root for her happiness.
I think this book will stay with me for a long time...
This get high marks from me and I hope you all are lucky enough to get your hands on a copy of this book.
My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Told in first person, the first chapter opens with an unnamed woman in prison. She admits to what put her there, and it's a horrible, horrible crime. But its hard to feel the weight of her crime so early on, not knowing who she is, how or why it happened. But not to worry, because she has decided to share her story, which starts early on, when she is just a baby herself...
So starts the rest of the chapters, almost like a coming of age story. There is love, there is sickness, there is laughter, there is sadness. After a family tragedy, what is left of her family heads to the US. There she tries to find her way, blend in, yet stand out.
Similar to her early years, there is love, there is sickness, there is laughter, there is sadness...but it's the ghosts of the past that take a hold of how this woman handles her demons in the future.
There are some moments in this time frame that are a bit long and I wanted the story to move on, but it's her story to tell, and the pace actually seemed to make the ending pop even more for me.
Huge bonus points for the surprise twist towards the end--absolutely did not see that coming.
I grabbed this book on a whim while 'shopping' in NetGalley, certainly not expecting this book to have the impact it had on me. I was so touched by the life of this unnamed woman and even though I knew the sad outcome, I still couldn't help but root for her happiness.
I think this book will stay with me for a long time...
This get high marks from me and I hope you all are lucky enough to get your hands on a copy of this book.
My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.
January 24, 2016
You know a book affects you when it ends with real tears running down your cheeks. What Lies Between Us is so sad. You know from the very start that it is going to be sad. The first person unnamed narrator informs you at the beginning that she is locked up and that she has killed her own child. From there, she recounts the path that led to this horrendous act. The first part of the story is set in Sri Lanka, where the narrator lives in a troubled household. Bad things happen to her, and bad things happen to her family. When she is 14, she and her mother move to California, and in many ways her life becomes the normal life of a first generation immigrant to the U.S. -- torn between two worlds and two generations. But the dark baggage she carries from her childhood resurfaces with a vengeance once she has a child, and eventually the tragic event you know will occur -- but somehow you keep hoping won't happen -- inevitably occurs. A couple of things about this book stand out and make it worth reading. It is beautifully written -- the author does a fabulous job of letting us enter the narrator's subjective experience and understanding of the world. The narrative often feels fragmented and partial, but conveys well the narrator's troubled past and its repercussions. To me, the writing was especially strong in the first part set in Sri Lanka, and again at the end after the narrator's baby is born. The other related aspect of the book that was particularly skilful is that the narrator's story is not a justification or excuse for the infanticide, but rather a powerful attempt to follow the often quasi psychotic inner logic that led to the tragic events. It's funny how the brain will try to trick you into hoping that there will be a better end than the one you know is inevitably coming. But there is no way around it. Be forewarned, What Lies Between Us is very very sad -- it does not depict graphic physical violence, but it is emotionally wrenching. Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an opportunity to read an advance copy.
March 25, 2016
This is a highly-affecting and emotional book that keeps getting better with each turn of the page.
We meet our un-named narrator at the beginning of the story, and know that something bad has happened, but we don't know exactly why or how. Starting at the beginning of her story we learn about her life -- as she remembers it. Told with lyrical language, the story is at once beautiful and melancholy. Munaweera tackles subjects that are heartbreaking and taboo.
Others have mentioned, and I agree, that this would be a great book club discussion book. This book also has the most intriguing prologue I have ever read!
4 (teary!) stars.
Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for a galley of this book in exchange for an honest review.
We meet our un-named narrator at the beginning of the story, and know that something bad has happened, but we don't know exactly why or how. Starting at the beginning of her story we learn about her life -- as she remembers it. Told with lyrical language, the story is at once beautiful and melancholy. Munaweera tackles subjects that are heartbreaking and taboo.
Others have mentioned, and I agree, that this would be a great book club discussion book. This book also has the most intriguing prologue I have ever read!
4 (teary!) stars.
Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for a galley of this book in exchange for an honest review.
January 28, 2016
When you’re a passionate reader – as I am – you inevitably begin to compare one book to another. In the past two or three years, I’ve read a number of books with a similar structure: the first part is a coming-of-age narrative that takes place in an exotic native locale (Nigeria, Uganda, Sri Lanka). The second part takes the now-grown narrator (usually female) to America, where she experiences culture shock and feels like a stranger in a strange land. Inevitably, part one is more compelling than part two.
I was afraid that What Lies Between Us would be too derivative and in that regard, it is (which is why I’m withholding the fifth star). But it rises to a higher level by taking on a heartbreaking topic: false memory and the effects of PTSD on the present.
We know almost from the first sentence that our narrator is in prison and it is strongly hinted that she has killed her child. So it is no spoiler that this is a central plot point of the book. But what triggered such an unnatural deed…particularly in a narrator that we, as readers, come to like?
The writing is confident and lyrical and once begun, the book maintains a constant gravitational pull on the reader. You could do far worse than spend several hours with this book in hand.
I was afraid that What Lies Between Us would be too derivative and in that regard, it is (which is why I’m withholding the fifth star). But it rises to a higher level by taking on a heartbreaking topic: false memory and the effects of PTSD on the present.
We know almost from the first sentence that our narrator is in prison and it is strongly hinted that she has killed her child. So it is no spoiler that this is a central plot point of the book. But what triggered such an unnatural deed…particularly in a narrator that we, as readers, come to like?
The writing is confident and lyrical and once begun, the book maintains a constant gravitational pull on the reader. You could do far worse than spend several hours with this book in hand.
January 23, 2019
5★
“So much happens before we are born. We come into being in the middle of the narrative, midway through stories that have been unfolding long before us. We totter in on our fat infant feet and attempt to take our places on the stage, but we know only a fragment of the bewildering plotline, only a sliver of the odd characters we encounter. The big people have been practicing their lines and playing their parts for decades.”
How can a writer do this--share such complex feelings so simply and beautifully? Nayomi Munaweera gives us a tender, frightening, thought-provoking story about a very specific girl, but the issues are universal—love, violence, fear, jealousy, otherness.
A Sri Lankan woman in prison, tells us the story of how she grew up as the daughter of a well-to-do family whose household and garden are managed by servants. She adored her father, but her mother, had violent mood swings, so the girl learned to stay silent, hoping to go unnoticed.
One day when her mother stayed in bed, the girl crept in to check. Her mother saw her but didn’t lash out this time. Instead, she asked why her daughter kept staring at her as if she might eat her up.
“I look away. How do I tell her I am afraid she will disappear? That one day I will push against the door, come in on my cat feet, and find no sign of her. They will tell me that she never existed. That I never had a mother. It is the most terrifying thing I can think.”
As a little girl, she heard her parents fight and saw their precious wedding picture flung to the floor and shatter.
“Later, either he or she had taken the picture, unfurled it, and put it in a new frame. It was something I learned then. That you could take the crumpled remains of something destroyed and smooth them into newness. You could pretend certain things weren’t happening even when you had seen or felt them. Everything done can be denied.”
And that’s how they lived together. Smoothing over, denying, not acknowledging what’s between them. After the move to California, she and her cousin (her best friend) enjoyed the American teenaged life that her mother deplored. Short skirts, cigarettes, and clubs. But she kept her distance from boys. They knew she was different. And her fears and nightmares had come with her.
We watch her navigate through school, jobs and eventually love. “Yes, of course, I like everything about him. Already I am a mirror. He is the image.”
But his friends: “They are mostly American, mostly white. They have a kind of perfect belonging, a knowing of where their earth is, where their roots sink. Next to them I feel like a hydroponic plant, roots exposed and adrift.”
She became less able to cope, smooth over, deny. “Even on perfect days, there is something under my skin. Some beast that moves below the surface. I can keep it at bay, mostly. But every now and then, it awakes and unfurls in jerky movements. It is the minotaur in the maze of my body. It wakes up and howls and wants to be seen, wants to show its broken face that is also mine.”
Near the end she says “They have taken every part of me. Only an empty husk is left, the sort of thing an insect climbs out of and leaves behind on a windowsill.”
Thanks to NetGalley and St Martin’s Press for an advanced review copy of this wonderful book from which I’ve quoted.
[I was reminded of "The Kite Runner", as both main characters left traditional backgrounds (Afghanistan and Sri Lanka) in their teens and ended up in California.]
“So much happens before we are born. We come into being in the middle of the narrative, midway through stories that have been unfolding long before us. We totter in on our fat infant feet and attempt to take our places on the stage, but we know only a fragment of the bewildering plotline, only a sliver of the odd characters we encounter. The big people have been practicing their lines and playing their parts for decades.”
How can a writer do this--share such complex feelings so simply and beautifully? Nayomi Munaweera gives us a tender, frightening, thought-provoking story about a very specific girl, but the issues are universal—love, violence, fear, jealousy, otherness.
A Sri Lankan woman in prison, tells us the story of how she grew up as the daughter of a well-to-do family whose household and garden are managed by servants. She adored her father, but her mother, had violent mood swings, so the girl learned to stay silent, hoping to go unnoticed.
One day when her mother stayed in bed, the girl crept in to check. Her mother saw her but didn’t lash out this time. Instead, she asked why her daughter kept staring at her as if she might eat her up.
“I look away. How do I tell her I am afraid she will disappear? That one day I will push against the door, come in on my cat feet, and find no sign of her. They will tell me that she never existed. That I never had a mother. It is the most terrifying thing I can think.”
As a little girl, she heard her parents fight and saw their precious wedding picture flung to the floor and shatter.
“Later, either he or she had taken the picture, unfurled it, and put it in a new frame. It was something I learned then. That you could take the crumpled remains of something destroyed and smooth them into newness. You could pretend certain things weren’t happening even when you had seen or felt them. Everything done can be denied.”
And that’s how they lived together. Smoothing over, denying, not acknowledging what’s between them. After the move to California, she and her cousin (her best friend) enjoyed the American teenaged life that her mother deplored. Short skirts, cigarettes, and clubs. But she kept her distance from boys. They knew she was different. And her fears and nightmares had come with her.
We watch her navigate through school, jobs and eventually love. “Yes, of course, I like everything about him. Already I am a mirror. He is the image.”
But his friends: “They are mostly American, mostly white. They have a kind of perfect belonging, a knowing of where their earth is, where their roots sink. Next to them I feel like a hydroponic plant, roots exposed and adrift.”
She became less able to cope, smooth over, deny. “Even on perfect days, there is something under my skin. Some beast that moves below the surface. I can keep it at bay, mostly. But every now and then, it awakes and unfurls in jerky movements. It is the minotaur in the maze of my body. It wakes up and howls and wants to be seen, wants to show its broken face that is also mine.”
Near the end she says “They have taken every part of me. Only an empty husk is left, the sort of thing an insect climbs out of and leaves behind on a windowsill.”
Thanks to NetGalley and St Martin’s Press for an advanced review copy of this wonderful book from which I’ve quoted.
[I was reminded of "The Kite Runner", as both main characters left traditional backgrounds (Afghanistan and Sri Lanka) in their teens and ended up in California.]
August 14, 2019
This is my first time reading a work by Nayomi Munaweera and what a, beautiful written, well crafted novel it was.
The writing style was new to me also. It was written in sharp staccato type paragraphs with each paragraph telling a tiny encapsulated story. It should have been confusing but, strangely, it wasn’t. It gave the story a sense of reality. It was like listening to someone telling a story who suddenly pauses because she has remembered something that should have told before. As I said earlier, “a beautifully written novel”
But if you are looking for a “and they all lived happily after story” this is definitely not the book for you.
A woman is in gaol and she is about to tell you what brought her here. It’s apparent fairly early on in the story why she is there but what drove her to do what she did and why she did makes for engrossing reading.
But be warned, this is a sad story of a sad woman who lived a sad life and the end left me with an aching hole in my sad heart. Joyful this is not.
A beautifully written heartfelt story and well deserving of a 4 stars recommendation.
The writing style was new to me also. It was written in sharp staccato type paragraphs with each paragraph telling a tiny encapsulated story. It should have been confusing but, strangely, it wasn’t. It gave the story a sense of reality. It was like listening to someone telling a story who suddenly pauses because she has remembered something that should have told before. As I said earlier, “a beautifully written novel”
But if you are looking for a “and they all lived happily after story” this is definitely not the book for you.
A woman is in gaol and she is about to tell you what brought her here. It’s apparent fairly early on in the story why she is there but what drove her to do what she did and why she did makes for engrossing reading.
But be warned, this is a sad story of a sad woman who lived a sad life and the end left me with an aching hole in my sad heart. Joyful this is not.
A beautifully written heartfelt story and well deserving of a 4 stars recommendation.
January 27, 2019
Haunting. Dreamy. Devastating.
Ganga starts her story with a disturbing prologue, the tale of the moon bear. The moon bear is a “peaceable citizen,” a genetic forbear of all bears, living in the treetops from the Himalayas to Japan. In Chinese medicine, this bear’s bile is considered to be a medicinal treasure. Thousands of moon bears are captured and tormented in tiny “crush cages” for years where periodically their stomachs are slit for their bile. It was reported by Chinese media that a mother moon bear, hearing her cub crying in a nearby crush cage, broke through her own iron bars, pulled her cub to her and strangled it. She then smashed her own head against the wall until she died. Ganga’s reveals that her point in telling this story is that it tells the reader everything they need to know about the nature of love between a mother and a child.
Munaweera’s writing is as stunning as the cover of her book. There are lyrical descriptions of the beauty of Sri Lanka and San Francisco. Ganga’s revelations and internal meditations are delicate and expressive, a poetical lament of the soul.
I felt two themes were very powerful in this story. Water representing the flow of life is dominant; water is everywhere, giving and taking life. Monsoons, rivers, oceans, deep glacial lakes, rain….Ganga is the Hindu river goddess, so her own name informs the story. The other theme is motherhood and the stifling expectations and demands, the loss of one’s own identity in supplication to another’s. A deep conflict rages in Ganga.
Very well done, executed brilliantly. I read it twice, just for the sheer indulgence of experiencing Munaweera’s magnificent writing.
A 4.5. May come back and give this a 5.
Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for an ARC of this novel. My review, however, is based on the hardcover copy.
Ganga starts her story with a disturbing prologue, the tale of the moon bear. The moon bear is a “peaceable citizen,” a genetic forbear of all bears, living in the treetops from the Himalayas to Japan. In Chinese medicine, this bear’s bile is considered to be a medicinal treasure. Thousands of moon bears are captured and tormented in tiny “crush cages” for years where periodically their stomachs are slit for their bile. It was reported by Chinese media that a mother moon bear, hearing her cub crying in a nearby crush cage, broke through her own iron bars, pulled her cub to her and strangled it. She then smashed her own head against the wall until she died. Ganga’s reveals that her point in telling this story is that it tells the reader everything they need to know about the nature of love between a mother and a child.
Munaweera’s writing is as stunning as the cover of her book. There are lyrical descriptions of the beauty of Sri Lanka and San Francisco. Ganga’s revelations and internal meditations are delicate and expressive, a poetical lament of the soul.
I felt two themes were very powerful in this story. Water representing the flow of life is dominant; water is everywhere, giving and taking life. Monsoons, rivers, oceans, deep glacial lakes, rain….Ganga is the Hindu river goddess, so her own name informs the story. The other theme is motherhood and the stifling expectations and demands, the loss of one’s own identity in supplication to another’s. A deep conflict rages in Ganga.
Very well done, executed brilliantly. I read it twice, just for the sheer indulgence of experiencing Munaweera’s magnificent writing.
A 4.5. May come back and give this a 5.
Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for an ARC of this novel. My review, however, is based on the hardcover copy.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 19, 2016
From the Prologue, the reader knows this will be a distressing story. From the first page in Chapter One, the reader knows that this story does not end well. From the first page in Chapter One, the reader knows that this is a beautifully written story; it’s pure literature. This is one of the most powerful novels I’ve read in a while; yet it’s an emotionally draining one: be prepared.
Many themes are tackled in this novel. It’s an immigration story. It’s a cultural story. It’s a mental illness story. It’s a childhood trauma and memory story. And it’s a Mother��s story.
Author Nayomi Munaweera is a Sri Lankan born author. In this novel, she brings to life what living in Sri Lanka was like in the 1970’s for a young girl who is of an affluent caste. The reader learns of coveted customs and idyllic life. The protagonist, who is unnamed until the final chapter, is young and her memory is pure, yet spotty. A tragic event occurs which results in her father’s death and results in the protagonist’s shame. The protagonist and her Mother move to the USA where they stay with the girl’s Aunt and Uncle.
At this point, Munaweera beautifully portrays the immigration experience for a Sri Lankan teenager. The protagonist must navigate the cultural differences. Add to that, the American naïveté of Sri Lanka.
Because at the beginning of the story, we know the protagonist has a baby, it’s no surprise that she meets and falls in love with a man. The sadness is in the protagonist finding Motherhood more complicated than expected.
I’m not going to provide any spoiler alerts; however I will say that this is one of the best novels I’ve read about that explores the deteriorating mind of an overwhelmed mother. It’s written in the protagonists voice which adds to the reader understanding the horrifying mixed-up logic and thinking process. To add to the intensity of the novel, Munaweera explores the deceptive power of childhood memory and what happens when shame makes events unspeakable. For me, this is where Munaweera shows her skill in mastering the plot.
This will be one of the Best Novels of 2016. It’s beautifully written. The plot is amazing. It’s informative of cultural differences, mental illness, and immigration challenges. It’s a 10 Star novel. Thanks Esil for bringing this one to my attention.
Many themes are tackled in this novel. It’s an immigration story. It’s a cultural story. It’s a mental illness story. It’s a childhood trauma and memory story. And it’s a Mother��s story.
Author Nayomi Munaweera is a Sri Lankan born author. In this novel, she brings to life what living in Sri Lanka was like in the 1970’s for a young girl who is of an affluent caste. The reader learns of coveted customs and idyllic life. The protagonist, who is unnamed until the final chapter, is young and her memory is pure, yet spotty. A tragic event occurs which results in her father’s death and results in the protagonist’s shame. The protagonist and her Mother move to the USA where they stay with the girl’s Aunt and Uncle.
At this point, Munaweera beautifully portrays the immigration experience for a Sri Lankan teenager. The protagonist must navigate the cultural differences. Add to that, the American naïveté of Sri Lanka.
Because at the beginning of the story, we know the protagonist has a baby, it’s no surprise that she meets and falls in love with a man. The sadness is in the protagonist finding Motherhood more complicated than expected.
I’m not going to provide any spoiler alerts; however I will say that this is one of the best novels I’ve read about that explores the deteriorating mind of an overwhelmed mother. It’s written in the protagonists voice which adds to the reader understanding the horrifying mixed-up logic and thinking process. To add to the intensity of the novel, Munaweera explores the deceptive power of childhood memory and what happens when shame makes events unspeakable. For me, this is where Munaweera shows her skill in mastering the plot.
This will be one of the Best Novels of 2016. It’s beautifully written. The plot is amazing. It’s informative of cultural differences, mental illness, and immigration challenges. It’s a 10 Star novel. Thanks Esil for bringing this one to my attention.
February 10, 2018
The name of the protagonist/narrator is unknown through most of the book. What we do know is that she was an only child, born in Sri Lanka, where she experiences a personal tragedy while quite young. To escape a past that few locals would forgive and a future of uncertainty, her mother takes her to America; and what has happened is to be forgotten, swept under the rug and never discussed. But our girl is haunted and tormented by memories of the man who hurt her and who might just find her some day. She believes she will certainly spend her life alone, and finds some solace in knowing that.
"... Something I learned then. That you could take the crumpled remains of something destroyed and smooth them into newness. You could pretend certain things weren't happening even when you had seen or felt them. Everything can be denied." (p. 23)
She does, in fact, find love and more happiness than she ever felt deserving of. Yet her memories are pervasive, and her mental state is fragile.
There are a few jaw-dropping moments scattered throughout this book, starting at the prologue and chapter one, moments that made me think I might not want to read on. The final 4-5 chapters were rough going, through my tears and my anger. Not an enjoyable storyline at all, but haunting and beautiful just the same.
"... Something I learned then. That you could take the crumpled remains of something destroyed and smooth them into newness. You could pretend certain things weren't happening even when you had seen or felt them. Everything can be denied." (p. 23)
She does, in fact, find love and more happiness than she ever felt deserving of. Yet her memories are pervasive, and her mental state is fragile.
There are a few jaw-dropping moments scattered throughout this book, starting at the prologue and chapter one, moments that made me think I might not want to read on. The final 4-5 chapters were rough going, through my tears and my anger. Not an enjoyable storyline at all, but haunting and beautiful just the same.
March 30, 2016
I knew this book had me just by reading the story of the moon bear in the prologue. What a powerful and haunting book by Nayomi Munaweera. It is a beautifully written book that takes the reader through so many emotions- sadness, anger, shocked, heartbroken. This is not a happy novel. At times I had a knot in my stomach reading about how horrifying a young girls life can be in the hands of her own family members. Then feeling heartbroken that she cannot let go of her past and ends up doing the unthinkable. This is the kind of book that stays with you for a long time. I look forward to reading future books by this author.
February 20, 2016
The cover is an apt metaphor of the book, where water plays a significant role in multiple turning points in the novel and the image of a woman half-submerged, reminds me of that ability a person has of appearing to cope and be present on and above the surface, when beneath that calm exterior, below in the murky depths, unseen elements apply pressure, disturbing the tranquil image.
The prologue mentions the maternal instinct of a mother, to sacrifice for her young, describing the aptly named moon bear due to the white shape on its chest, an animal that is hunted for medicinal purposes and capable of going to extremes in order to protect its young.
Structured into five parts, the book is written in the first person by an unnamed narrator, and opens from within a cell. We understand the protagonist is a woman who for her crime often receives hate mail from mothers and marriage proposals from men. She mentions atrocities from the civil war in her home country, stories she says she was detached from, suffering that was not hers.
'They think that maybe growing up in a war-torn land planted this splinter of rage within me, like a needle hidden in my bloodstream. They think that all those years later, it was this long embedded splinter of repressed trauma that pierced the muscle of my heart and made me do this thing.'
From here, she begins to narrate her story, her confession:
We arrive in a hill city of Kandy in Sri Lanka where she recounts her solitary, yet idyllic childhood, among the scent of tropical gardens, a big old house, 'sweeping emerald lawns leading down to the rushing river' overlooked by monsoon clouds.
Her father is a historian, her mother elegant, beautiful, prone to mood swings, making her feel awkward, tongue-tied and self-conscious, unlike when she is in the garden with Samson, or in the kitchen with Sita, domestic servants with whom she feels more like herself.
Lulled by lyrical descriptive prose into this dreamy, idyllic childhood, albeit with somewhat detached parents, there develops a feeling of something being not quite right, the child's perspective clouds reality, something haunts her and the reader, a sense of unease.
Tragedy hits the family and the girl and her mother move to America to live with her cousin, Aunt and Uncle.
Having always looked towards her cousin as the epitome of modern, something she aspired to, it is a shock to learn of her upcoming arranged marriage, she agrees to be bridesmaid, despite strong feelings to the contrary, grateful that her mother, though troubled, knows better than to push her daughter in this direction.
'I am grateful for this. Amma might throw plates, lock herself in the bathroom for hours, and cut her wrists. She might scream and yell, but this is something she could not do, this selling of a child to the highest bidder. For once we are united.'
She will fall into the way of life of those who surround her, reinventing herself, almost becoming like one who was born there, if not for that backwash of childhood, that sometimes pushes its way back into her life, threatening to sweep her out of domestic bliss like a freak wave, dumping her mercilessly on the foreshore. As strange memories resurface, her carefully created new world begins to fall apart at the edges as she frantically tries to keep all that is precious to her together.
What Lies Between Us is powerful, accomplished novel of parts that could be whole stories in themselves. Munaweera's deft, lyrical prose lulls and transports the reader into an idyllic childhood of sweet-smelling tropical scents and beauty, open vistas, an enchanted natural world, only to be pulled up short by signs of disturbance, until in an instant they become tragic.
Slowly mother and daughter adapt to the new way of life, except the past will never leave them, it haunts them, consciously and sub-consciously, destroying precious moments and threatening to derail their lives completely.
Like Toni Morrison's God Help the Child it is a novel highlighting the effect of childhood on an adult, how the past continues to affect the present and can take everyone along with it. It blinds us, and like an invisible cloak with far-reaching tentacles, it can reach into every pocket of our lives, dampening and rotting the good.
Heartbreaking, compelling, so unfair, it is also a story representing the very real cost of ignoring mild disturbances of mental health, portraying how easily they can evolve and transform into horrific tragedy, when left untreated or ignored, not to mention how unforgiving and despicable humanity can be in dealing with those affected by it.
Highly Recommended.
Nayomi Munaweera’s debut novel, Island of a Thousand Mirrors was long-listed for the Man Asia Literary Prize and the Dublin IMPAC Prize. It won the Commonwealth Regional Prize for Asia. I've ordered a copy and plan to read it this year as well. She and her family left war-torn Sri Lanka when she was three years old and moved to Nigeria and eventually to America.
The prologue mentions the maternal instinct of a mother, to sacrifice for her young, describing the aptly named moon bear due to the white shape on its chest, an animal that is hunted for medicinal purposes and capable of going to extremes in order to protect its young.
Structured into five parts, the book is written in the first person by an unnamed narrator, and opens from within a cell. We understand the protagonist is a woman who for her crime often receives hate mail from mothers and marriage proposals from men. She mentions atrocities from the civil war in her home country, stories she says she was detached from, suffering that was not hers.
'They think that maybe growing up in a war-torn land planted this splinter of rage within me, like a needle hidden in my bloodstream. They think that all those years later, it was this long embedded splinter of repressed trauma that pierced the muscle of my heart and made me do this thing.'
From here, she begins to narrate her story, her confession:
We arrive in a hill city of Kandy in Sri Lanka where she recounts her solitary, yet idyllic childhood, among the scent of tropical gardens, a big old house, 'sweeping emerald lawns leading down to the rushing river' overlooked by monsoon clouds.
Her father is a historian, her mother elegant, beautiful, prone to mood swings, making her feel awkward, tongue-tied and self-conscious, unlike when she is in the garden with Samson, or in the kitchen with Sita, domestic servants with whom she feels more like herself.
Lulled by lyrical descriptive prose into this dreamy, idyllic childhood, albeit with somewhat detached parents, there develops a feeling of something being not quite right, the child's perspective clouds reality, something haunts her and the reader, a sense of unease.
Tragedy hits the family and the girl and her mother move to America to live with her cousin, Aunt and Uncle.
Having always looked towards her cousin as the epitome of modern, something she aspired to, it is a shock to learn of her upcoming arranged marriage, she agrees to be bridesmaid, despite strong feelings to the contrary, grateful that her mother, though troubled, knows better than to push her daughter in this direction.
'I am grateful for this. Amma might throw plates, lock herself in the bathroom for hours, and cut her wrists. She might scream and yell, but this is something she could not do, this selling of a child to the highest bidder. For once we are united.'
She will fall into the way of life of those who surround her, reinventing herself, almost becoming like one who was born there, if not for that backwash of childhood, that sometimes pushes its way back into her life, threatening to sweep her out of domestic bliss like a freak wave, dumping her mercilessly on the foreshore. As strange memories resurface, her carefully created new world begins to fall apart at the edges as she frantically tries to keep all that is precious to her together.
What Lies Between Us is powerful, accomplished novel of parts that could be whole stories in themselves. Munaweera's deft, lyrical prose lulls and transports the reader into an idyllic childhood of sweet-smelling tropical scents and beauty, open vistas, an enchanted natural world, only to be pulled up short by signs of disturbance, until in an instant they become tragic.
Slowly mother and daughter adapt to the new way of life, except the past will never leave them, it haunts them, consciously and sub-consciously, destroying precious moments and threatening to derail their lives completely.
Like Toni Morrison's God Help the Child it is a novel highlighting the effect of childhood on an adult, how the past continues to affect the present and can take everyone along with it. It blinds us, and like an invisible cloak with far-reaching tentacles, it can reach into every pocket of our lives, dampening and rotting the good.
Heartbreaking, compelling, so unfair, it is also a story representing the very real cost of ignoring mild disturbances of mental health, portraying how easily they can evolve and transform into horrific tragedy, when left untreated or ignored, not to mention how unforgiving and despicable humanity can be in dealing with those affected by it.
Highly Recommended.
Nayomi Munaweera’s debut novel, Island of a Thousand Mirrors was long-listed for the Man Asia Literary Prize and the Dublin IMPAC Prize. It won the Commonwealth Regional Prize for Asia. I've ordered a copy and plan to read it this year as well. She and her family left war-torn Sri Lanka when she was three years old and moved to Nigeria and eventually to America.
June 8, 2016
Stories thrive in the liminal state where perception meets evidence. This is the thematic heart of Nayomi Munaweera's novel What Lies Between Us; it is the very essence of a seemingly-unremarkable title. Between us lies the truth of our personal narrative and the truth of others' perceptions of us. Between us are the lies we tell ourselves and the lies we are told by others.
Ganga is a young girl raised in 1980s Sri Lanka, an island nation as lush with culture and history as it is with monsoon-soaked vegetation, the only child of an educated, middle-class father and a beautiful but poor mother. As an adult living in the United States, she becomes—as we learn in the book's opening pages—the perpetrator of a most unspeakable crime. We don't learn the specifics of the crime until the end of the book, but we know that as a mother, she has failed. The book's narrative shows us how Ganga herself was failed as a child.
What Lies Between Us is framed by the present—the narrator in prison–a oft-used trope (most recently in Petina Gappah's The Book of Memory, set in contemporary Zimbabwe, but to a lesser resonance). In between is the recounting of a life, a shaping of past circumstances that speak to Ganga's the current devastation. “This is a history of what we do to one another. This is the story of what it means to be both a child of a mother and a child of history.”
Ganga's personal history is one of external privilege and affluence mixed with a distant, cold father and a volatile mother. After a series of tragedies that occur when Ganga is a pre-teen, she and her mother immigrate to the Bay Area. Ganga transitions from a sheltered Sri Lankan child to a more savvy, but reserved American woman who devotes herself to her career as a nurse, until she meets the love of her life, Daniel. What seems like an idyllic union becomes enhanced by the arrival of their daughter, Bodhi Anne. And yet it is in the face of this cherished innocence that Ganga's carefully constructed world breaks apart.
They say that family is the place of safety. But sometimes this is the greatest lie; family is not sanctuary, it is not safety and succor. For some of us, it is the secret wound. Sooner or later we pay for the woundings of our ancestors. This was the truth for me and for my beautiful bright-faced child.
Nayomi Munaweera has crafted a lyrical, dramatic, intense narrative that flows beautifully, yet keeps the reader ever off-balance with unstable characters, shifting truths, and taut foreshadowing. She shows her characters no mercy, yet her grace and compassion are evident in the fullness with which she allows their stories to unfold.
Highly recommended.
Ganga is a young girl raised in 1980s Sri Lanka, an island nation as lush with culture and history as it is with monsoon-soaked vegetation, the only child of an educated, middle-class father and a beautiful but poor mother. As an adult living in the United States, she becomes—as we learn in the book's opening pages—the perpetrator of a most unspeakable crime. We don't learn the specifics of the crime until the end of the book, but we know that as a mother, she has failed. The book's narrative shows us how Ganga herself was failed as a child.
What Lies Between Us is framed by the present—the narrator in prison–a oft-used trope (most recently in Petina Gappah's The Book of Memory, set in contemporary Zimbabwe, but to a lesser resonance). In between is the recounting of a life, a shaping of past circumstances that speak to Ganga's the current devastation. “This is a history of what we do to one another. This is the story of what it means to be both a child of a mother and a child of history.”
Ganga's personal history is one of external privilege and affluence mixed with a distant, cold father and a volatile mother. After a series of tragedies that occur when Ganga is a pre-teen, she and her mother immigrate to the Bay Area. Ganga transitions from a sheltered Sri Lankan child to a more savvy, but reserved American woman who devotes herself to her career as a nurse, until she meets the love of her life, Daniel. What seems like an idyllic union becomes enhanced by the arrival of their daughter, Bodhi Anne. And yet it is in the face of this cherished innocence that Ganga's carefully constructed world breaks apart.
They say that family is the place of safety. But sometimes this is the greatest lie; family is not sanctuary, it is not safety and succor. For some of us, it is the secret wound. Sooner or later we pay for the woundings of our ancestors. This was the truth for me and for my beautiful bright-faced child.
Nayomi Munaweera has crafted a lyrical, dramatic, intense narrative that flows beautifully, yet keeps the reader ever off-balance with unstable characters, shifting truths, and taut foreshadowing. She shows her characters no mercy, yet her grace and compassion are evident in the fullness with which she allows their stories to unfold.
Highly recommended.
January 20, 2019
From the beginning we know that this woman in prison is damaged beyond repair. Then we travel back to her time as a child in the lush hills of Sri Lanka being raised by her parents and find that amid the tropical beauty some traumatic things are going on which send she and her Mother Amma fleeing to America. Here some things are better , and some of course are worse as the culture shock is very difficult. Later on she goes to college , becomes a nurse, and meets Daniel the man who appears to be part of her happy ever after. But this is not that “ feelgood” book, as her past continues to haunt her and then when she has a child of her own the real unraveling begins.
This is a very well written book, with beautiful prose, and some shocking secrets. If the first part seems a little vague, the last third of the book is a guaranteed page turner.
If you are planning on reading it be warned, it is pretty emotionally taxing and it’s a read that won’t be for everyone.
Also I would steer clear of detailed reviews, as it’s difficult not to give away too much.
Read for Kick Up Your Heels club- 4.5 ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ 🌟 💫
This is a very well written book, with beautiful prose, and some shocking secrets. If the first part seems a little vague, the last third of the book is a guaranteed page turner.
If you are planning on reading it be warned, it is pretty emotionally taxing and it’s a read that won’t be for everyone.
Also I would steer clear of detailed reviews, as it’s difficult not to give away too much.
Read for Kick Up Your Heels club- 4.5 ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ 🌟 💫
December 22, 2016
Wowww. That might be one of the most heartbreakingly beautiful books I've read in a long time.
January 29, 2016
I haven’t been this emotionally destroyed by a book since A Little Life. And I’m having the same struggle now as I did then—how do you recommend a book that is so crushingly sad? How do you justify encouraging people to read a story certain to devastate them?
I don’t know the answers to those questions, but I am recommending this book anyway. The writing is near flawless. The main character’s painful life and personal failings make me want to weep with empathy. Life can be so, so hard, can’t it? What Munaweera does so brilliantly—and what Yanagihara did with A Little Life—is demonstrate how our past determines our future. Pain in the past does not disappear; it lies in wait, ready to spring back years later with renewed force. People do not make terrible, haunting choices in a vacuum. There is always a way in, a route to understanding, with a deft and sensitive writer as a guide.
My heart is still bleeding, but I’ll be reading everything Munaweera writes from now on.
With regards to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for the advance copy. On sale February 16.
More book recommendations by me at www.readingwithhippos.com
I don’t know the answers to those questions, but I am recommending this book anyway. The writing is near flawless. The main character’s painful life and personal failings make me want to weep with empathy. Life can be so, so hard, can’t it? What Munaweera does so brilliantly—and what Yanagihara did with A Little Life—is demonstrate how our past determines our future. Pain in the past does not disappear; it lies in wait, ready to spring back years later with renewed force. People do not make terrible, haunting choices in a vacuum. There is always a way in, a route to understanding, with a deft and sensitive writer as a guide.
My heart is still bleeding, but I’ll be reading everything Munaweera writes from now on.
With regards to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for the advance copy. On sale February 16.
More book recommendations by me at www.readingwithhippos.com
March 10, 2016
Nayomi Munaweera's spellbinding second novel concerns a young woman whose traumatic past in the Sri Lankan civil war was left behind, but its damage was inescapable. Man can she write--strong and lyrical and lush and biting, all at the same time. What I particularly like is Munaweera's sense of women and their destinies--in this book, she illustrates that motherhood isn't a pristine, isolated phenomenon, it's an aspect of a woman's entire experience and can't remain untouched by that.
July 29, 2016
Wow. Wow. Wow.
I was just knocked out by this novel. Such a wonderful surprise as I read it not having any information about it except that a reader that I trust saying that it affected her as much as A Little Life.
And, boy, was she right! This is a book that is utterly engrossing and beautifully rendered. Uhhhh. I didn't want it to end. It overs so much ground - Sri Lankan cultural history (which I knew very little about so this novel opened a whole new world up to me) is a big focus but it's also about motherhood, how we see things as children, the immigrant experience, marriage and love.
I don't want to give much away as I found it so wonderful to ease into this novel without knowing much about what was to come. Just know that it's beautifully written ... emotionally devestating (in that way a great book can be) ... haunting and intimate ... I just can't recommend it more highly.
Nayomi Munaweera's writing is superb, her pacing is SO good, and her storytelling is just fantastic. I can't wait to read her first novel which has been on my TBR since it's release ... it's now moving up the list. I suspect that I'll love it and that I'll continue to keep an eye open for her future work.
Go get this book. You won't regret it!
(By the way, although heartbreaking, I wouldn't say it's particularly graphic or difficult to read. There is sadness and pain but nothing gratuitous or anything. I often preface any A Little Life recommendations with a 'be careful - it can be very graphic and impactful' but I don't think I feel compelled to do that with this novel).
I was just knocked out by this novel. Such a wonderful surprise as I read it not having any information about it except that a reader that I trust saying that it affected her as much as A Little Life.
And, boy, was she right! This is a book that is utterly engrossing and beautifully rendered. Uhhhh. I didn't want it to end. It overs so much ground - Sri Lankan cultural history (which I knew very little about so this novel opened a whole new world up to me) is a big focus but it's also about motherhood, how we see things as children, the immigrant experience, marriage and love.
I don't want to give much away as I found it so wonderful to ease into this novel without knowing much about what was to come. Just know that it's beautifully written ... emotionally devestating (in that way a great book can be) ... haunting and intimate ... I just can't recommend it more highly.
Nayomi Munaweera's writing is superb, her pacing is SO good, and her storytelling is just fantastic. I can't wait to read her first novel which has been on my TBR since it's release ... it's now moving up the list. I suspect that I'll love it and that I'll continue to keep an eye open for her future work.
Go get this book. You won't regret it!
(By the way, although heartbreaking, I wouldn't say it's particularly graphic or difficult to read. There is sadness and pain but nothing gratuitous or anything. I often preface any A Little Life recommendations with a 'be careful - it can be very graphic and impactful' but I don't think I feel compelled to do that with this novel).
May 15, 2018
This is a history of what we do to one another.
File this book under:
shattering
mental illness
you should have protected me
is it any wonder I turned out like this?
you’re culpable
i can’t breathe
ptsd
you made it all about you
i never stood a chance
why didn’t you help me?
broken
bpd
you never should have been a mother
unforgivable
i will never be ok
So much happens before we are born. We come into being in the middle of the narrative, midway through stories that have been unfolding long before us. We totter in on our fat infant feet and attempt to take our places on the stage, but we know only a fragment of the bewildering plotline, only a sliver of the odd characters we encounter. The big people have been practicing their lines and playing their parts for decades.
File this book under:
i hate you
happy mother’s day
No, file it under:
you didn't know any better
i’m sorry
But I’ll say this also. If you had looked closely enough, you would have seen. Most of us were damaged long ago, hurt in some tender place long, long before we were mothers. Wounded flowers, bruised even in their tight closed bud, bear bitter fruit. The prisons are full of us.
File this book under:
no, I’m not sorry
you never should have been a mother
i will never forgive
i will never be ok
They say that family is a place of safety. But sometimes this is the greatest lie; family is not sanctuary, it is not safety and succor. For some of us, it is the secret wound.
File this book under:
shattering
mental illness
you should have protected me
is it any wonder I turned out like this?
you’re culpable
i can’t breathe
ptsd
you made it all about you
i never stood a chance
why didn’t you help me?
broken
bpd
you never should have been a mother
unforgivable
i will never be ok
So much happens before we are born. We come into being in the middle of the narrative, midway through stories that have been unfolding long before us. We totter in on our fat infant feet and attempt to take our places on the stage, but we know only a fragment of the bewildering plotline, only a sliver of the odd characters we encounter. The big people have been practicing their lines and playing their parts for decades.
File this book under:
i hate you
happy mother’s day
No, file it under:
you didn't know any better
i’m sorry
But I’ll say this also. If you had looked closely enough, you would have seen. Most of us were damaged long ago, hurt in some tender place long, long before we were mothers. Wounded flowers, bruised even in their tight closed bud, bear bitter fruit. The prisons are full of us.
File this book under:
no, I’m not sorry
you never should have been a mother
i will never forgive
i will never be ok
They say that family is a place of safety. But sometimes this is the greatest lie; family is not sanctuary, it is not safety and succor. For some of us, it is the secret wound.
April 2, 2016
There is something new and fresh about Munaweera's writing that I cannot get enough of. Her command of prose is spellbinding, and its clear, her writing gets better with age.
What Lies Between Us will pull you in and not let you go until the very last page. What I loved most about this novel is the opening. I am a sucker for a great opening. As soon as you start reading this novel you are thrown into this un-named character's world. You know from the start something really bad happened but not how or why. What comes after is a little mind blowing.
What I could not get over was Munaweera's description of the character giving birth. It was so in-depth and detailed that she basically cemented my desire to maybe not go down the childbearing road.
This is an amazing read. I promise you, you will not be disappointed. Definitely one of the break out novels for 2016!
What Lies Between Us will pull you in and not let you go until the very last page. What I loved most about this novel is the opening. I am a sucker for a great opening. As soon as you start reading this novel you are thrown into this un-named character's world. You know from the start something really bad happened but not how or why. What comes after is a little mind blowing.
What I could not get over was Munaweera's description of the character giving birth. It was so in-depth and detailed that she basically cemented my desire to maybe not go down the childbearing road.
This is an amazing read. I promise you, you will not be disappointed. Definitely one of the break out novels for 2016!
June 5, 2017
It is not always easy to read a book like this, where the emotions and agony of the narrator feels so upfront and personal. In fact, at times it felt as if the wind was knocked out of me.
The narrator (mostly unnamed) was also not always the most likable character but the writing was something to behold.
Ganga’s childhood was an idyllic one, growing up in in an old and beautiful house nestled in the hills of Sri Lanka. Her life is like any other………until it isn’t. The consequences of trauma culminate in one fateful night that leaves her father dead and her family forever stained by a dark secret.
In the wake of this, Ganga and her mother seek safety by immigrating to America. But secrets are not bound by geographic borders and she never really lives a normal life.
The ending was shocking even if the parable at the beginning of the story tells you exactly what was to follow. Perhaps I am not meant to completely understand the reasoning of Ganga in her final act
This is a dark tale of abuse, suffering and self-destruction. Difficult to absorb but beautifully told.
The narrator (mostly unnamed) was also not always the most likable character but the writing was something to behold.
Ganga’s childhood was an idyllic one, growing up in in an old and beautiful house nestled in the hills of Sri Lanka. Her life is like any other………until it isn’t. The consequences of trauma culminate in one fateful night that leaves her father dead and her family forever stained by a dark secret.
In the wake of this, Ganga and her mother seek safety by immigrating to America. But secrets are not bound by geographic borders and she never really lives a normal life.
The ending was shocking even if the parable at the beginning of the story tells you exactly what was to follow. Perhaps I am not meant to completely understand the reasoning of Ganga in her final act
This is a dark tale of abuse, suffering and self-destruction. Difficult to absorb but beautifully told.
May 18, 2016
4.5 stars
This is a most horrific story told in the most beautiful language. I'm not sure how the author achieves suspense and lyricism, but she does so effectively. At the 3/4 mark, I wanted to both put this book down and devour it all at once. I chose to devour.
Not for the feint of heart, this book contains abuse, murder and some pretty graphic descriptions of sex. But it's all worth the storytelling.
I was reminded of The Enchanted in all the best ways.
This is a most horrific story told in the most beautiful language. I'm not sure how the author achieves suspense and lyricism, but she does so effectively. At the 3/4 mark, I wanted to both put this book down and devour it all at once. I chose to devour.
Not for the feint of heart, this book contains abuse, murder and some pretty graphic descriptions of sex. But it's all worth the storytelling.
I was reminded of The Enchanted in all the best ways.
January 18, 2016
I received this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
This book boarders more on the 3.5 star rating, but honestly, I am not quite sure how to review this book. There were parts that had me so enraptured and some that I was like "wait, what? what did I miss?" and then some passages that I just completely skipped right over.
From the very first chapter, I knew the heinous crime for which our storyteller was in jail for. It is fairly self-evident. But what you don't know is the why and what lead our protagonist to this point.
In the end, this is an extremely sad, sad book and makes you wish there were more people in our main characters life who intervened and made her get the help she so desperately needed. Specifically her husband and mother. Daniel certainly knew that something was not right and once the postpartum depression set in, he should have done more to urge her to get help. Her mother knew about her past demons and swept them under the rug although it was clear that the main character was deeply affected. And knowing what she knows, why would she push her to be in a relationship and have a baby if she wasn't willing to help her?
I was extremely conflicted by this book. I liked this book and read it very quickly, but there are so many things that I liked and didn't like that giving it an average rating seems about right.
This book boarders more on the 3.5 star rating, but honestly, I am not quite sure how to review this book. There were parts that had me so enraptured and some that I was like "wait, what? what did I miss?" and then some passages that I just completely skipped right over.
From the very first chapter, I knew the heinous crime for which our storyteller was in jail for. It is fairly self-evident. But what you don't know is the why and what lead our protagonist to this point.
In the end, this is an extremely sad, sad book and makes you wish there were more people in our main characters life who intervened and made her get the help she so desperately needed. Specifically her husband and mother. Daniel certainly knew that something was not right and once the postpartum depression set in, he should have done more to urge her to get help. Her mother knew about her past demons and swept them under the rug although it was clear that the main character was deeply affected. And knowing what she knows, why would she push her to be in a relationship and have a baby if she wasn't willing to help her?
I was extremely conflicted by this book. I liked this book and read it very quickly, but there are so many things that I liked and didn't like that giving it an average rating seems about right.
April 12, 2016
3.5 Stars
I enjoyed this atmospheric and emotional novel by Nayomi Munaweera. This is a new author for me and I am glad I picked this one up to read.
The novel opens with a prologue in the form of a parable. It is the story of a Himalayan moon bear that is driven to kill her cub in a most gruesome way. It is a short and absolutely shocking tale but what an opening for this novel. At first I questioned the reason for this shocking opening but the author does explain , “it tells us everything we need to know about the nature of love between a mother and a child.” and I knew I just had to continue reading this book.
The novel's rich and vivid prose tells the life story of its narrator from her Sri Lankan girlhood to her adult life in America. I really enjoyed the descriptions of the culture and traditions of Sri lanka and how upon moving to America their lives are affected and influenced by the people around them.
The story is at times brutal and yet I never found it graphic.
An emotional read about how our pasts can influence out futures
I enjoyed this atmospheric and emotional novel by Nayomi Munaweera. This is a new author for me and I am glad I picked this one up to read.
The novel opens with a prologue in the form of a parable. It is the story of a Himalayan moon bear that is driven to kill her cub in a most gruesome way. It is a short and absolutely shocking tale but what an opening for this novel. At first I questioned the reason for this shocking opening but the author does explain , “it tells us everything we need to know about the nature of love between a mother and a child.” and I knew I just had to continue reading this book.
The novel's rich and vivid prose tells the life story of its narrator from her Sri Lankan girlhood to her adult life in America. I really enjoyed the descriptions of the culture and traditions of Sri lanka and how upon moving to America their lives are affected and influenced by the people around them.
The story is at times brutal and yet I never found it graphic.
An emotional read about how our pasts can influence out futures
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