Search results for ""Author Lakshmi Persaud""

Daughters of Empire is a sweeping family saga bound by the themes of family, migration and culture clash. At its heart is a tale of two sisters: Ishani, who stays in Trinidad with the family business, and Amira who emigrates to England. Ishani is a richly comic creation: a good-hearted manipulator determined to keep a grasp on her younger sister across the seas. Soul-searching Amira, however, wonders how she will raise three daughters away from home, and how a traditional Hindu upbringing will clash with the seductions of British individualism. And as she soon discovers, daughters of empire – even those with the very best educations – may never quite fit in, especially with those who see only colour. "Powerful and poetic" – Time Out. Lakshmi Persaud was born in 1939 in Trinidad. She studied at Queen's University, Belfast, and later at Reading University. She has lived mainly in the UK since the 1970s. Her novels are Butterfly in the Wind (Peepal Tree, 1990), Sastra (Peepal Tree, 1993), For the Love of My Name (Peepal Tree, 2000) and Raise the Lanterns High (2004).

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The pundit warns Sastra's mother that her daughter's birth signs foretell two possible karmas, one of prosperous security if she keeps to the well-tried path of obedience to tradition, the other of mixed joy and misery if she should attempt to 'fly' and follow her own desires. These are indeed Sastra's choices - between the traditional, collective Hindu society of her parents, and the world of individual destinies and responsibilities to which her generation is increasingly drawn.Set in Trinidad in the 1950s, Sastra is a moving and tender love story, a rich evocation of the village world and a memorable portrayal of a brave young woman who never tries to evade or complain about the consequences of her choice."One of the novel's most striking qualities is the assurance with which it registers inner turbulence. It often suggests a web of feeling that trembles within a framework of courtesies."Mervyn MorrisLakshmi Persaud was born in 1939 in Trinidad. She is the author of Butterfly in the Wind, Sastra and For the Love of My Name. She lives in London.

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This fictionalised autobiography gives a richly woven portrait of Kamla's life from early childhood to the point where she leaves her family, Pasea village and Trinidad to attend university in the UK. It gives a vivid and inward picture of a Caribbean community still in touch with its roots, seen from the developing perspective of a young woman at the crossroads of diverse social, cultural and religious influences. The portrait bears witness to the moral strengths of the community as well as showing Kamla's growing awareness of the repressions and hypocrisies of its treatment of women. From early in her life Kamla is surprised by a contrary inner voice which frequently gainsays the wisdom of her elders and betters. But Kamla is growing up in a traditional Hindu community and attending schools in colonial Trinidad where rote learning is still the order of the day. She learns that this voice creates nothing but trouble and silences it. In this book the voice is freed.Set in the 1940s, Butterfly in the Wind was enthusiastically received when it first appeared in 1990. Its portrayal of a passage from childhood to young womanhood was praised by The Sunday Times as "a sweet-natured book which is above all a tremendous celebration of life". The Observer praised it for "the empathy with which Lakshmi Persaud writes of the natural world... and Hindu customs".Lakshmi Persaud was born in 1939 in Trinidad. She is the author of Butterfly in the Wind, Sastra and For the Love of My Name. She lives in London.

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