Evening is the Whole Day

(Paperback)

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Set in Malaysia, this spellbinding first novel introduces us to the prosperous Rajasekharan family as it slowly peels away its closely guarded secrets. When the family's rubber-plantation servant girl is dismissed for unnamed crimes, it is only the latest in a series of precipitous losses that have shaken six-year-old Aasha's life. In the space of several weeks her grandmother died under mysterious circumstances and her older sister, Uma, left for Columbia University, gone forever. Circling through years of family history to arrive at the moment of Uma's departure - stranding her worshipful younger sister in a family, and a country, slowly going to pieces - Evening is the Whole Day illuminates in heartbreaking detail one Indian immigrant family's layers of secrets and lies, while exposing the complex underbelly of Malaysia itself. Sweeping in scope, exuberantly lyrical, and masterfully constructed, Preeta Samarasan's debut is a mesmerising and vital achievement.

Reviews

.,." a surpassingly wise and beautiful debut novel about the tragic consequences of the inability to love."

Author Bio

Preeta Samarasan was born and raised in Malaysia but moved to the United States in high school. After spending several years ostensibly working on a dissertation on gypsy music in France, but all the while writing fiction, she decided to switch tracks. She recently received her MFA from the University of Michigan, where an early version of this novel received the Hopwood Novel Award; she also recently won the Asian American Writers Workshop short story award. She is currently working on a collection of short stories and another novel, and lives in central France with her husband and dog. Visit Preeta's website at: www.preetasamarasan.com