The Girl in the Garden
Release date: 2011 / 305 pages
Synopsis (from the back cover): At once a powerful family saga and compelling personal odyssey, Kamala Nair’s debut novel tells the story of a conflicted young woman who, in an effort to seek clarity about her impending marriage, revisits in memory one fateful summer from her childhood.
First Sentence: By the time you read this I will be flying over the Atlantic on my way to India.
Review: On many levels, this novel feels like a fairy tale — from the lush, sumptuous setting, to the eleven-year-old narrator, to the secrets revealed by the end. The frame of the story involves a young woman, newly engaged, who decides she cannot begin a marriage with secrets. So, she writes her fiance a letter about one fateful summer — the summer she turned eleven — and the rest of the novel unfolds as if the past were occurring in the present. We join the narrator, eleven-year-old Rakhee, as she travels to India with her mother to meet her grandmother, aunts, uncles and cousins and discovers a world of secrets that ultimately drives her away from her mother.
The writing is very fast-paced and the novel makes short work of an afternoon. Nair creates India viscerally and the setting was my favorite aspect of this novel, although the story and characters were compelling as well. Overall, I would recommend this as a great novel to take on vacation — easy to get into and then return to.
So, if you are interested, please leave me a comment and I will choose a winner by the weekend!
Monday, June 27th: Reflections of a Bookaholic
Tuesday, June 28th: Simply Stacie
Wednesday, June 29th: Reading on a Rainy Day
Thursday, June 30th: Stiletto Storytime
Tuesday, July 5th: Book Club Classics!
Wednesday, July 6th: The Scarlet Letter
Thursday, July 7th: Stephanie’s Written Word
Monday, July 11th: Unabridged Chick
Tuesday, July 12th: Coffee and a Book Chick
Wednesday, July 13th: Savvy Verse and Wit
Friday, July 15th: Chick Lit Reviews
Monday, July 18th: Books Like Breathing
Tuesday, July 19th: Dolce Bellezza
Wednesday, July 20th: Life in Review
Monday, July 25th: Peeking Between the Pages
Tuesday, July 26th: Joyfully Retired
Friday, July 29th: Book Snob
Oh, the book sounds wonderful! Thank you
Would love to win this one!
Thanks for the giveaway. This books sounds fascinating.
This books sounds fabulous!! Thanks for the chance to win:)
marcee dot rodgers at gmail dot com
Looking forward to reading this book!
I love fast paced books and especially those that are steeped into another culture. I would love to win to find out the secrets that drive the girl away from her mother.
No need to enter me – I read/reviewed the book recently. It is a great read! And good for book clubs too.
Thanks for the giveaway- the book sounds really great! I’d love to enter!
I am always looking for new and different books to share with our Book Club. This sounds like a great book to read while staying in the cool air conditioning during our hot summer afternoons in Birmingham.
Oh, this sounds like a great book. Would love to read.
Thanks for the giveaway. My ethnicity is South- Asian(India), so I am always drawn to books about/set in India and books by South-Asian authors.
This one is already on my TBR mountain.
Book sounds FABULOUS!
Sounds like a fun and quick read ~ please enter me
This sounds like a really interesting book. Thanks for the giveaway!
I recently read Secret Daughter and loved the feel of India the book evoked. I’d love to read another book about India.
This sounds like a great suggestion for my next book club book! And I have always wanted to go to India. Maybe someday soon…
This sounds amazing just from what you wrote above. I am in 2 book clubs and this sounds like a perfect selection. Thanks for the chance to win a copy.
Sounds like a great book
I like the premise of this story, it’s a good creative way to bring the past in. And I wonder what could have she have discovered when she was 11 that she feels the need to tell her fiance before marriage?!
This reminds me a bit about young newly engaged women during the early 1900s worrying about any “love” letters they may have written to their first ‘love’ several years prior when they were 15 or 16. Many of these young women worried if these letters came to light, there’s engagements would end and their reputations be destroyed. It’s a fascinating commentary on the times and social issues!
Thank you for the chance to win a copy of this book!
The book sounds like a good read. Thanks.
I’d love to read it, thanks!
Perfect selection for the summer reading theme this year! Thanks for sharing.
This sounds like a really good story. I would love to read it.
It sounds like a great read.
This sounds like a great story – please include me! Thanks
This sounds like a beautiful story…fingers crossed!
i tend to not like “india” books but this sounds like one that might change my mind!
This sounds like a great book! Thanks for the chance.
nancyecdavis AT bellsouth DOT net
I would love to read this!
This sounds like an intriguing read! Thank you for entering me in the Giveaway!
You are soooooo lucky to be going to India!! How is that you manage so much travel?!
I don’t know exactly why, but I love books set in India and thereabouts, and it has become a favorite “genre” of mine. The culture is complicated and intriguing and I think saris are just so beautiful. (I know, I’m romanticizing!) Anyway, this book is on my wish list, so I thank you for the chance to win a copy. And I hope you have a good trip!
Hi Gwendolyn! Actually, I do not have plans to visit India any time soon… Need to get through my tri-state move with 2 puppies and 2 horses first
But perhaps one day!!
I love the comparison to a fairy tale!
Thanks for being a part of the tour.
Sounds very interesting. Thanks for the Giveaway!
I’d love to read this! It sounds really good! Thank you!
Sounds like another winner.
Thanks for the review and the giveaway.
jgoffice(at)cox(dot)net
I have never heard of this book before but I love the sound of this book. I can’t wait to read it.
Sounds great! Please count me in. Thank you!
nfmgirl AT gmail DOT com
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JOHN SHORS “Beneath a Marble Sky” is our bk.club pick-it’s a wonderful story of India’s Taj Mahal so it would be great to win this.
I really want to read this! It sounds good! Thank you for the giveaway!
My friend, Janet, travel to India on business, and she was just explaining to me how complicated the arranged marriages in India can be. Intriguing. This would be a great read to give me some insight into this fascinating world of women from another culture. Thanks for your continued excellent work.
Life is complicated, and that of children become even more so with interventions of caring, and destructive adults. This books sounds like it offers good insight into what happens early in life affects the person we become. I would appreciate reading the book.
Thank you