{"title":"Shya Selvadurai","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"cinnamon-gardens-book-shya-selvadurai-9781862300736","title":"Cinnamon Gardens","description":"In Shyam Selvadurai's masterful second novel, set in repressive and complex 1920s Ceylon, the Cinnamon Gardens is a residential enclave of wealthy Ceylonese. Among them is Annalukshmi, an independent and high-spirited young teacher intent on thwarting her parents' plans to arrange her marriage. In a parallel narrative, her uncle, Balendran Navaratnam, respectably married but secretly homosexual, has his life disrupted by the arrival in Ceylon of Richard, a lover from long ago. 'Richly rewarding ...this is, in many ways, an old-fashioned novel, brimming with old-fashioned virtues. The characters and setting are established in a measured, finely judged manner, allowing us to feel at home with them. Annalukshmi's Jane Austen-ish domestic life -- anxious mother, bossy aunt, catty sisters, endless talk of prospective husbands -- is brought to life with glancing humour. Not least of the novel's virtues is the way he seems to conjure up a whole social panorama. With its vivid evocation of time and place, its wise characterisation, its involving emotional dramas, this is a novel that deserves, and will surely gain, a wide readership' Adam Lively, Sunday Times 'Subtle and deeply humane ...a fine novel that is both delicately written and very, very wise . ..Selvadurai has established himself firmly as an important chronicler of the complexities of social and cultural difference' Books in Canada","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49564407005457,"sku":"GOR001307234","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49614480539921,"sku":"GOR002042656","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ WELL_READ \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50446097383697,"sku":"GOR001134196","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1862300739.jpg?v=1751427411"}],"url":"https:\/\/www.worldofbooks.com\/collections\/author-books-by-shya-selvadurai.oembed","provider":"World of Books ","version":"1.0","type":"link"}