The Wild Wind

by Sheena Kalayil

“An emotionally resonant, semi-autobiographical story about growth and change and coming to terms with loss” from the Writers’ Guild Award-winning author (The Herald). Vanish to a different land with Sissy Olikara. Sissy is twelve years old, living with her parents and baby brother on a school campus outside of Lusaka. It is 1978, and the political situation in Zambia is becoming volatile. The family enjoy a gentle life until, suddenly, Sissy’s father leaves and returns to India. His departure brings about a chain of events which force Sissy into the adult world and have profound, long-lasting consequences. Moving back and forth in time as the adult Sissy reflects on her childhood, The Wild Wind is a haunting, absorbing coming-of-age tale of lost loves and lost innocence—one that takes readers on a journey into a young woman’s past and its repercussions on her future.Featured on The Guardian’s “Not the Booker Longlist, 2019” “A finely structure family story . . . It is written with serious respect for its characters and their story. There are no villains. It is about people in credible situations and people who are almost all trying to behave well. This is difficult to bring off and Kalayil is evidently a novelist of real talent.” —Yorkshire Post “Follows Sissy Olikara, a US-based translator reflecting on her 1970s childhood in the outskirts of the Zambian capital Lusaka. The end result is profound and long-lasting.” —Sunday Post

Genres: Africa

300 pages, Kindle Edition

Published August 9, 2019

Reviews

[GS · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 / 5 rounded up (rounding down would actually be more justifiable, but I felt like rounding up when I finished this book, so the rating stands)

The wild wind is set in 1970's Zambia. 12 year old Sissy Olikkara's parents are immigrants from Kerala, recruited to teach at a private school in the outskirts of Lusaka. Sissy is in awe of her mother - a dusky beauty who is nevertheless every woman. This is as much Sissy's story as her mother's - the latter is narrated through Sissy's eyes.

Sissy's family, other immigrants who teach at the school, locals who work in the school, the nuns who run the school, the girls who study at the school, all live within the private boarding school's sprawling campus. Thus Sissy's world is defined by the boundaries of the school campus, and the bits of Kerala she sees in her visits to her parents' homes. Her family leads a cocooned existence within the school community, essentially decoupled from the realities of Zambia at the time. The bits that Sissy does know about the outside world, she learns through interactions with two men she considers her friends - their house maid's epileptic son Ezekiel, and school handyman Jonah - and by eavesdropping on adult conversations.

Most of the key events in the book transpire in a period of 6 months, in the midst of Rhodesian bush wars and around the time a civilian aircraft was shot down in the war. Around this time, Sissy's father returns to Kerala - a routine visit - but slowly retreats from their lives for reasons unknown. Sissy, her mother and toddler brother are left in Lusaka, processing the ripples from the war that are felt in their secluded world.

We learn all of Sissy's past in a series of flashbacks set in the present day. Sissy is in her 30s and works as a translator. Present day Sissy decides to confront the past she has chosen to deeply bury within herself, and so we get to take leaps into the past with her. I didn't particularly care for the parts of the book with adult Sissy, but understand why Kalayil chose this narrative device and it worked fine.

Kalayil dangles two mysteries in front of her readers from the get-go: What happened to Sissy's father and why did he leave her family? How did Sissy get her scar? Given the set up of the book, I'd consider the former to be a more significant question than the latter, but unfortunately Kalayil gives closure only on the latter. In the last chapter of the book, we learn that Sissy's father was in communication with her mother for many, many years all the way into Sissy's adulthood - information she withheld from Sissy and blatantly lied to her about. I got the impression that it was Sissy's mother who chose to leave her father and not the other way around, although this is a deviation from the information stated in the book and may not be what the author intended. Since a teenager's lived experience filters reality in many ways, we learn only partial truths about Sissy's mother and are left with more questions than answers about the kind of relationship she shared with Sissy's father. I consider this a flaw in the book - the open-ended narration was welcome, but it should have included some more color to allow the reader a richer extrapolation. The ending exasperated me (but not to a major extent) due to this.

Overall, I enjoyed the setting in the book, uniqueness of its premise and the vivid imagery it invoked. I thought Kalayil got the 'serious teenager' voice just right. There are some interesting tidbits about superstition concerning Ezekiel's epilepsy. Sissy's teenage crush is very relatable. When I think of a 1970's Malayali woman, I'd describe her with much the same imagery as Sissy describes her mother, so the authenticity of the narration resonated with me. Much like Sissy, Sheena Kalayil spent her formative years in Lusaka as the daughter of Malayali immigrants and it is evident that she drew from this well when writing the book - the narrative rings true and this is a major strength of this book.

Reading context: Reading around the world choice for Zambia
Read as: Original work in English
Book format: Physical book, borrowed from the Stanford libraries

[J. A. Lewis · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this book to be intriguing and one I couldn't seem to put down. Sissy and her family live in Zambia where her mother is a teacher. The story weaves in and out between Sissy as a vulnerable child and as an adult. When Sissy's father leaves without any apparent reason, her world is turned topsy turvy. A number of tragedies occur which change and alter Sissy's life forever. The characters are mesmerizing. I thoroughly enjoyed this read and would love to read another of this author's books.

[Robert Burgon · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an excellent first novel, set in Zambia, India and to a lesser extent. It is a coming-of-age tale of a young girl growing up in the tensions of late 1970s Africa. There is part of her life story which the author keeps until the very last pages.

[Adelyne · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars rounded down. Solid storyline and captured the setting brilliantly, incorporation of true events into the storyline inspired me to go and read up more on the history of North/South Rhodesia afterwards. Was headed for a 5 stars but I thought the structure broke up a bit in the last quarter or so, and it got too rambly for my liking - pity as the story did very well to draw me in right from the get-go. More detailed thoughts to follow.

[Kim Hayes · Rating 5 out of 5]

A gorgeous book; very descriptive and engaging. Not a great deal happens in the story, really, but sometimes that doesn't matter. Quite beautiful.