Turtle Nest

by Chandani Lokuge, Chandani Lokugé

Aruni is a troubled young woman who lives in Melbourne with her adopted family, but has never felt at home in Australia. She returns to Sri Lanka, the country of her birth, seeking out the "beach people" who scratch a living from the beautiful coastline. Aruni yearns to know more about her mother, Mala, who grew up on the beach.

In the comfort of her hotel, Aruni flirts with Paul, an older, married Australian man, but she is also drawn by the careless, laughing attentions of the handsome beach boys. Happy for the first time in her life, Aruni thinks she has found the place where she belongs. But as reluctant relatives mine their memories, and the story of Mala's tragic life unfolds, it becomes clear that, for Aruni, belonging will never be that easy.

241 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2003

About the author

Chandani Lokuge migrated to Australia from Sri Lanka. Her first novel, If the Moon Smiled was shortlisted for the NSW Premier's Literary Awards - Best Novel and Community Relations categories - in 2001. Chandani is also the author of the critically acclaimed Moth and Other Stories. Her short fiction is widely anthologised including in Gas and Air: Tales of Pregnancy, Birth and Beyond, Penguin Summer Stories, Heatwave and Penguin Anthology of Modern Sri Lankan Short Stories. She is also the editor for Oxford University Press of the Classic Reissue series of Indian women's autobiographies and fiction written in English. Her latest novel Turtle Nest was released in 2003. Chandani lives in Melbourne and is a Senior Lecturer in English, and Director, Centre for Postcolonial Writing at Monash University.
[Source]

Professional profile at Monash University website

Reviews

[Maddie Robertson · Rating 5 out of 5]

A much deeper novel than I anticipated and a heartbreaking one 💔

[Sindhuja R · Rating 4 out of 5]

I came across this book by chance in a book exhibition and purchased it. This is a complex story of a young woman with a troubled childhood. The girl in question, lives with her foster parents in Australia, but goes to Sri Lanka in an attempt to find out the truth about her original parents. The story then gives the reader a glimpse of the life lived by the poor fisher folk in the shores of Lanka - the girl's mother is said to be one among them.. It then traces the life of the mother, her struggles with innocence and temptations of youth, poverty and cruelty, right until the birth of Aruni, the protagonist..
The narrative is beautiful and poetic - though it takes us through the harsh cruelties faced by few people.. I enjoyed both the story and the rendition..

[Tracie Griffith · Rating 5 out of 5]

More Australians should read these kinds of novels. We are so isolated on our island home that we seem to have lost all compassion for migrants and the migrant experience - despite our ancestors having traveled the same route. I was really touched by this story as it speaks to us all of our dispossession.

[Mallee Stanley · Rating 4 out of 5]

A dark story addressing prejudice as seen through the "beach boys" and the protagonist's story. Don't expect any laughs because this is a realistic look at poverty and how it can lead to exploitation by predator tourists in Sri Lanka.

[Asha Seth · Rating 2 out of 5]

Such a time-waste!