Purple Lotus

Name: Purple Lotus
Brand: Tantor Audio
Availability: InStock
Author: Veena Rao
ISBN: 9798765010860

Author: Veena Rao

Narrator: Jeed Saddy

Unabridged: 10 hr 28 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 04/19/2022

Categories: Fiction, Women

Synopsis

Tara moves to the American South three years after her arranged marriage to tech executive Sanjay. Ignored and lonely, Tara finds herself regressing back to childhood memories that have scarred her for life. When she was eight, her parents had left her behind with her aging grandparents and a schizophrenic uncle in Mangalore, while taking her baby brother with them to make a new life for the family in Dubai.

Tara's memories of abandonment and isolation mirror her present life of loneliness and escalating abuse at the hands of her husband. She accepts the help of kind-hearted American strangers to fight Sanjay, only to be pressured by her patriarchal family to make peace with her circumstances. Then, in a moment of truth, she discovers the importance of self-worth—a revelation that gives her the courage to break free, gently rebuild her life, and even risk being shunned by her community when she marries her childhood love, Cyrus Saldanha.

Life with Cyrus is beautiful, until old fears come knocking. Ultimately, Tara must face these fears to save her relationship with Cyrus—and to confront the victim-shaming society she was raised within.

Contains mature themes.

About Veena Rao

Veena Rao was born and raised in India but calls Atlanta home. A journalist by profession, she is the founding editor and publisher of NRI Pulse, a popular Indian-American newspaper. Although her day job involves news reports, interviews, and meeting press deadlines, she devotes her spare time to creative writing and long walks in the woods. Purple Lotus, her debut novel, is the winner of the She Writes Press and SparkPress Toward Equality in Publishing (STEP) contest.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Jessica

A purple lotus is a symbol of rebirth and this novel lives up to that name. It is the story of a rebirth of an Indian woman who battles through cultural expectations to become her own person. Tara grew up in India and was often left alone. Her parents moved to Dubai when she was young and left her w......more

Goodreads review by Desiree

Wow! Amazing. Immersive. Fantastic. Very well done!......more

Goodreads review by Krystelle

Please note this is a 4.5. "We're going to bed tonight early, Esther," I say to myself as I open my ARC of this book before I go to bed. "Just going to read about 50 pages to get off to sleep and I'll be done." This was a lie. It is not a frequent lie I tell myself, but it's not often that I enjoy a b......more

Goodreads review by Kiran

"Purple Lotus proves Rao to be an apt writer of character study and an effortless storyteller. I’d recommend it first and foremost to people who are fans of the expansive storytelling of Tayari Jones, Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni or Jhumpa Lahiri, and then to anyone who wants to add to their bookshel......more

Goodreads review by Rutuja

This book follows a story of a Indian woman Tara who shifts to America after her marriage, well things go in wrong direction and Tara finds herself trapped between the present and her past, her past if full of hardships and when both of is overlapping, an amazing character get into the story. Cyrus......more