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    The Girl in the Garden
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    The Girl in the Garden
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    The Girl in the Garden
    Audiobook8 hours

    The Girl in the Garden

    Written by Kamala Nair

    Narrated by Anitha Gandhi

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    The redemptive journey of a young woman unsure of her engagement, who revisits in memory the events of one scorching childhood summer when her beautiful yet troubled mother spirits her away from her home to an Indian village untouched by time, where she discovers in the jungle behind her ancestral house a spellbinding garden that harbors a terrifying secret.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHachette Audio
    Release dateJun 15, 2011
    ISBN9781609412227
    Unavailable
    The Girl in the Garden
    Author

    Kamala Nair

    Kamala Nair, an architect, children's book illustrator, and author, believes that her dreams sprouted wings in the small coastal Indian state called Kerala. It's difficult to wipe the smile off her lips when she travels, for she finds joy in diverse cultures, people, and architecture. Outside her workstation, you can usually find her basking in earthy sunsets, savoring lustrous green pastures during her walks, or swimming alongside the fishes.

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    Reviews for The Girl in the Garden

    3.5/5

    11 ratings11 reviews

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    • 2/5
      Now a newly engaged adult, Rakhee remains haunted by the events of her one summer in India. The novel tells the story of that summer in a long letter written to her fiancee, explaining why she must defer their engagement. Until she confronts her past, she cannot face her future. What happened that summer?

      One of these days, I would really love to read a novel set in the Indian subcontinent or with first generation desi folk and not have it be almost entirely depressing. Sure, times are hard there, but there must be some books where no characters commit suicide by jumping into a well. I mean, there just have to be.

      I did like this much better than Tiger Hills, but, be warned, its still very sad. Pretty much the only part that isn't completely depressing is the epilogue. Reading both of these novels, I get the idea of just how much family history can haunt people. The mistakes of the previous generation snowball into even worse mistakes by the next. Also, never try to marry your daughter off to an awkward, stuttering creeper, because it never ends well.

      The Girl in the Garden confronts tough issues, like depression, arranged marriage, pregnancy and divorce. These issues are dealt with well for the most part, not hitting the reader over the head with an agenda. Through Rakhee, it is clear that issues of childhood take a long time to get over (so true), but that it is important to get closure before trying to be a real person, so that you can close the cycle.

      The plot twists were pretty much all things I saw coming from many miles away. There really was no other way things were going to go. There is one twist that I swear was not revealed but must be the case. I rather wish I could talk with someone else who read the book so that they could tell me if I'm crazy or not; all I can say is that it involves Prem.

      Overall, this wasn't a book I particularly enjoyed, but, for those who enjoy tragic family stories, this is quite well done.
    • 5/5
      Usually when I’m reading a book for review I think about things to say as I read. Halfway through this book I didn’t know what I was going to say and now that I’m finished I still don’t think I can do it justice.We are introduced to Rakhee as she is preparing to leave her sleeping fiance in the middle of the night. She knows she can’t marry him until she goes back to India and deals with her past. She leaves him a long letter explaining, and that explanation is the rest of the story in the book.I thought this book was magical. The story unfolded at the perfect pace; not once was I tempted to skim or skip ahead. I did not want to miss a single word. As I was reading, I felt like I was sitting at the knee of some wise grandmother listening to her stories. Ms. Nair’s words carried me slowly and calmly through the story, introducing characters smoothly. These characters were developed perfectly. Oh, they had their faults, but were so well written that you couldn’t help but like them.I have always been a fan of stories set in India and Ms. Nair did a fabulous job describing her setting. Just as with her characters, she took a dry and not always pleasant setting and made is endearing and almost homey.From reading other reviews, I just knew I would like this book. I heard about it, requested it from the library, and finished it in just five days. It was a page-turner for sure, and I would not hesitate to read her next book.
    • 3/5
      Our past and our family are two of the biggest parts of what makes up each of us. The past may be finished but it forms the basis for so much, even if we try to distance ourselves from it; it is inescapable. And family is even more inescapable, written in our very genes and tugging at us no matter how hard we try to turn our backs on it. In Kamala Nair's debut novel The Girl in the Garden, recognition of family, excessive pride in name and reputation, and the exposure of its deepest secrets changes everything.The novel opens with Rakhee leaving her engagement ring and a very long letter with her new fiance explaining that she cannot possibly get married without finding closure from the summer when she was 11 and her mother took her back to India, the summer that shook up her life and her family forever. The letter detailing the events of that summer makes up the bulk of the book. Rakhee's parents' marriage is floundering and in addition to the tension of life at home, she also has to deal with feeling outcast at school, the only Indian girl and so different than the rest of her classmates. When a letter arrives from India, her mother, who is clearly depressed and remote, decides to take Rakhee back to her small village in Southern India for the summer.At first, aside from missing her father, Rakhee is happy enough in India. She makes friends with her cousins and settles into life in the big house with her family. But it doesn't take long until she notices some troubling things: her uncle no longer runs the family hospital, drinking his days away and leaving the administration to a slightly sinister man who visits too frequently for anyone's comfort. She is disturbed by her awareness of her mother's relationship with long-time family friend, Prem, worrying for her father's sake at how close they seem to be growing. And she has been forbidden to venture past a low stone wall into the jungle behind the house because of spirits but when she disobeys, what she finds instead is a deformed girl hidden away from the world in a gorgeous locked garden. There are secrets and things she doesn't understand everywhere Rakhee turns both because she is just a child and because even in India, she is "other," American and a cultural outsider.Nair's writing is very descriptive, loaded with atmosphere, drawing a lush picture of Southern India and reflecting the slow decline and decay of the once proud Varma family. There is is an enchanted fairy tale feel here. And as in fairy tales, the plot is fairly predictable and simplistic. The characters, as seen through Rakhee's eyes, are almost all one dimensional, and her brief return to India as an adult to find closure and repair the hurts still festering from her long ago summer there doesn't change how the reader views any of the characters because it is too abbreviated to do so. Readers who fancy all things Indian will certainly enjoy this story, filled as it is with love and deceit, secrets and lies.
    • 4/5
      Atmospheric, steamy, lush--first time author Kamala Nair's novel is also filled with a sense of foreboding. The summer Rakhee turns eleven, her mother (Amma) takes her from their home in Minnesota to southern India to meet her extended family there. From the beginning--even before the trip to India--Rakhee senses secrets are being kept. Everything seems to have a hidden story--the ancestral home, the hospital that carries the family name, Amma's dear friend Uncle Pram--and Rakhee's persistent curiosity is the tug that causes all the cover stories to unravel. Fragments of fairy tales lend tension--she finds a lush fenced garden hidden deep in the forest--what secrets might it hide?Nair's novel is filled with memorable characters, both sympathetic and hateful. We learn much about Indian culture and customs--fascinating details that add to the depth of the story. Her writing is flawless--descriptive and lyrical--a joy to read!A coming of age story in every sense, the summer in India marks the end of childhood for Rakhee as she heroically and fearlessly advances, uncovering the truth about Amma and her family. It grabs the reader in the first sentence, then sweeps us away to Rakhee's sultry and life-changing summer.
    • 4/5
      3 1/2 but learned more about India's culture than I knew before and the cahracters were interesting as was the storyline. Young girl's view of a mysterious garden and family history, insights into her mother that she didn't have before going from America to India to meet her family. A little to Secret Garden and Kate Morton for my taste.
    • 4/5
      A very endearing story of a girl telling the story of her summer in India. Her summer was full of events that changed her way of thinking about her life, love and family. She spends the summer of her 11th birthday with her mother's family in India. And slowly events unravel, stories evolve and the characters develop. The majority of this bitter-sweet story takes place at the family home. They do have some travels outside the rural Indian house, but the real evolutions happen right in the home. We see loss of life, love and childhood. The gaining of understanding, love and family. This was a story that I would like to read again. The evolution of the story and events unravelling was a perfect pace. It kept me very engaged and I was saddened when it was over. Beautiful story.
    • 4/5
      If you have read any of my reviews in the past you must know by now that I absolutely love books that give me a taste of another culture...throw a young gal into the mix who is in the midst of life changes and I am hooked! We learn about Rakhee's life changing summer in India as she reflects upon that time before making a very important decision that will impact the rest of her life.As a young girl Rakhee is an only child living with her parents in Plainfield, Minnesota. Both of her parents moved to the U.S. from India at a very young age and seemed to have established a comfortable life for their young family. Amma (Rakhee's mother) immerses herself in creating the most beautiful garden in the area, while her father, Aba, spends most of his time at the scientific lab where he is employed. Amma has had her problems with depression in the past, but she seems to be falling deeper into that realm once again when envelopes start arriving in the mail that are addressed from India. After Amma receives a few of these envelopes she decides that she will take Rakhee to her family home in India for the summer.It is a new world and culture that Rakhee discovers in India and she embraces the family that she has never met before. Her mother's sisters and brother all live under one roof in a very large estate. She learns that her family is both respected and apparently well-off since her grandfather started a hospital in the area that specialized in ayurvedic treatments. Although her grandfather is no longer alive, family members have continued his work in the hospital.I really believe that we as women take so much for granted in this wonderful country that we live in. Rakhee is shown the some of these differences in the everyday life that is led in India. From women not having choices in arranged marriages to not being able to step into the holy temples, things are very different, and Rakhee finds herself yearning for her father and her life back in Minnesota.Rakhee does embrace her new cousins though, as they spend time together every day, they come to be the sisters that she never had. When her cousins must study in the afternoons Rakhee has spare time on her hands and decides to venture out into the forbidden woods to see what is so scary. What she finds isn't scary at all, but one of the most beautiful places she has ever seen. Little does she know that this beautiful place will change her life forever.I don't want to give away any more of this book but I can tell you that I really enjoyed it. With themes of family secrets, loyalty, and Indian culture, this is a great book to read for either personal leisure or as a book club selection. I don't hesitate in recommending this book.
    • 4/5
      It was a privilege to read an advance copy of The Girl in the Garden and to meet the author, Kamala Nair, in person. Working in the Communications division of the library does have its perks. I met with Kamala in order to take some photos and to do some video interviews to help promote her debut novel which will be available on June 15th. She's going to be at Barnes & Noble - Apache Mall on Friday, June 17th and at the Rochester Public Library on Thursday, July 28th. Watch the library's YouTube channel for the series of interviews that will be posted throughout the month.The first chapter of The Girl in the Garden pulled me right in; a mystery was afoot and I needed to know what it was all about. Rakhee, the main character, has decided that she cannot get married until she settles some issues from her past. The rest of the book is the explanation to her fiance of why she needs to go back to India... Eleven-year-old Rakhee accompanies her mother to spend a summer in India with her mother's family. Throughout the summer Rakhee realizes that the family has a lot of secrets to unravel and mysteries to solve. When the summer ends, things don't work out the way Rakhee planned or hoped they would and she goes back to America, burying the secrets once again. These secrets are what she has to uncover once and for all before she feels she can, in good conscience, move on with her life.Kamala's descriptive writing style gives the reader a full sense of the colors, smells, and sounds of India; it makes me want to visit so I can experience it for myself. It was a good, plot-twisting read.
    • 4/5
      Rakhee Singh leaves a letter for her fiancee along with her engagement ring before heading off to India. The letter explains that she has been keeping secrets from him, and that she must return to India to resolve some things that happened there when she was eleven. That summer, while traveling with her mother, Rakhee is introduced to a whole new world which is much different than the life she leads in Minnesota. When she arrives in India with her mother there are a plethora of family secrets that Rakhee plans to solve. Who wrote the letters that drove her mother to make the decision to return to India? Is there really a child-eating monster hiding in the jungle behind the home of her ancestors? What she discovers will shape the person she becomes and will force her to return to her family years later to put this baggage to rest before she can marry the man she loves.This debut novel from author Kamala Nair is beautifully written. The characters are alive and the story, though slow at times, is well-crafted. The mystery of the "monster" in the garden and the secrets Rakhee's family are trying to hide are interesting, though I did feel the resolve was a little flat. This novel is still worth a read. Nair has an exquisite voice and her descriptions are flawless. It's a quick read, and definitely worth the time.(Advanced review copy courtesy of NetGalley)
    • 3/5
      An exotic tale marred by novice writingThere are a million stories in the naked city, and a million writers trying to get them published. At times like this, I really have to wonder: Why this one? How was it that author Kamala Nair won the golden ticket? Because I just don’t see it. The novel opens in the present day in the form of a letter from first person narrator Rakhee to her fiancée. “By the time you read this, I will be flying over the Atlantic on my way to India. You will have woken up alone and found the diamond ring I left on the bedside table and beneath it, this stack of papers you now hold.” Okay, already I find her unsympathetic because that “stack of papers” is in fact the 300-page manuscript that makes up the novel. Premeditate much, Rakhee? Well, never mind adult Rakhee because this is a coming of age tale about the summer that Rakhee turned 11. It was a pivotal season in her life and as she explains (in absentia) to her fiancée, until she comes to terms with her past, she can’t move forward with the marriage. Rahkee is of Indian descent, born in America. She was raised among the blondes of Minnesota, so it’s no wonder she felt like an outcast. She’s a lonely, artistic girl, more close to her scientist father than her indifferent and depressive mother. During a time of heightened family tensions, Rahkee’s mother decides it will be good for them to spend the summer in rural India with her family. There Rakhee meets aunts, uncles, cousins, and the grandmother she hasn’t seen in years. At first, it’s a happy time of finally belonging. But there are dark undercurrents at the family home. Why have the children been warned away from entering the jungle behind their home?Rakhee is not so suspicious or easily manipulated as her cousins, and before long she has discovered a mysterious cottage surrounded by a beautiful garden, all behind a tall, locked fence. And, she eventually discovers the deformed girl who is the cottage’s sole resident… Are you fully appreciating the references to The Secret Garden yet? That is just one of the many themes in this dreary melodrama. Why dreary? I really didn’t find this book well-written. I found the pace frequently plodding, the dialogue occasionally cringe-worthy (“I’ve been dreading this, but it has to be done. People will talk if I don’t go and see them and act as if everything is normal. Stupid gossips.”), the imagery heavy-handed (“The entire garden had transformed into a crumbling shell of its former self.”), the secrets and twists to be obvious and telegraphed, and the melodrama to be over the top. Actually, the over-the-topness did help pick up the pace of things as the novel approached its climax. I was grateful for that.I think this could have been a rich, exotic tale in a more experienced writer’s hands, but alas, this is a debut I could have skipped.
    • 4/5
      The Girl in the Garden is as far as I can tell is the first novel by Kamala Nair which is surprising because it's rendered with the restraint and grace that many novelists only develop later in their career. The plot begins with Rahkee on the verge of her engagement as she recollects a summer she spent in India with her mom and her Indian Relations. Eleven year old Rahkee spends the first part of the trip contrasting India and her hometown of Plainfield, Minnesota, bonding with her cousins, and fiercely missing her father. When her mother starts acting strangely, her amateur investigations lead her to a family secret that will have tremendous implications for everyone she loves.Rahkee is a smart and unbelievably mature young lady. Her actions not only defy reason but ensure great personal consequences that only the bravest of characters would make. She's almost too rational. The first of many illogical elements a reader must wrestle with before surrendering to the magic of Nair's tale. And The Girl in the Garden is most definitely a modern fairy tale. The novel will undoubtedly draw comparisons to The Secret Garden due to the similarities in tone and plot. It also nods to it's mythic roots by weaving the Indian epic of Rama and Sita from the Ramayana into its narrative. Though the book is touted as terrifying, I found it more melancholy. It incorporates the clash of many themes ie, the difficult relationship between Rakhee and her mother with the traditional familial dynamic of India, science with the supernatural, love with obsession, etc... For a short novel it covers a lot of material, no doubt due to the large page count of exposition which Nair slowly builds, and then unravels in pages. And so novel does manage to hold tension throughout the story and yield multiple surprises. The Girl in the Garden is a spell binding work which captures the imagination of it's audience. Recommended.