Purple Lotus: A Novel

by Veena Rao

Overview

2021 American Fiction Award: Winner

A 2021 Georgia Author of the Year Award Finalist
2021 International Book Awards, Finalist: Women's Fiction
2021 International Book Awards, Finalist: Multicultural Fiction

Featured in Travel + Leisure’s "20 Most-anticipated Books for Fall”
“20 Classic and New Books About Feminism That Will Get You Thinking and Talking”
―Parade

“A moving and polished novel that highlights Rao’s literary promise.”
―Kirkus Reviews

“Rao’s resonant novel is an ode to the value of personal dignity and the importance of being true to oneself that carries on long after the final chapter.”
―Newsweek magazine

“Purple Lotus is the Atlanta novel you need to be reading this year… Tara is probably one of the strongest characters you’ll find in Southern fiction.”
—ArtsATL

“I’d recommend it to people who are fans of the expansive storytelling of Tayari Jones... and then to anyone who wants to add to their bookshelf of growing Atlanta literature.”
—PANK Magazine”

“The dazzling tale of an Indian-American woman finding her way through the labyrinth of tradition to self-awareness in the modern world. The writer employs an energetic prose style interspersed with melodic passages to make the writing itself a hybrid. Set in particular times and places, Purple Lotus nonetheless appeals to readers everywhere, especially women, to claim the full measure of their human rights. A vivid and resplendent novel for our time.”
―Elaine Neil Orr, critically acclaimed author of Swimming Between Worlds

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.

Intimate and deeply moving, Purple Lotus is the story of one woman’s ascension from the dark depths of desolation toward the light of freedom.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781631527616
Publisher:	She Writes Press
Publication date:	09/27/2020
Pages:	312
Sales rank:	1,051,438
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x (d)

About the Author

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.

Editorial Reviews

2021 American Fiction Award: Winner

A 2021 Georgia Author of the Year Award Finalist
2021 International Book Awards, Finalist: Women's Fiction
2021 International Book Awards, Finalist: Multicultural Fiction

Featured in Travel + Leisure’s "20 Most-anticipated Books for Fall”
“20 Classic and New Books About Feminism That Will Get You Thinking and Talking”
―Parade

“A moving and polished novel that highlights Rao’s literary promise.”
―Kirkus Reviews

“Rao’s resonant novel is an ode to the value of personal dignity and the importance of being true to oneself that carries on long after the final chapter.”
―Newsweek magazine

“Purple Lotus is the Atlanta novel you need to be reading this year… Tara is probably one of the strongest characters you’ll find in Southern fiction.”
—ArtsATL

“I’d recommend it to people who are fans of the expansive storytelling of Tayari Jones... and then to anyone who wants to add to their bookshelf of growing Atlanta literature.”
—PANK Magazine

“The dazzling tale of an Indian-American woman finding her way through the labyrinth of tradition to self-awareness in the modern world. The writer employs an energetic prose style interspersed with melodic passages to make the writing itself a hybrid. Set in particular times and places, Purple Lotus nonetheless appeals to readers everywhere, especially women, to claim the full measure of their human rights. A vivid and resplendent novel for our time.”
―Elaine Neil Orr, critically acclaimed author of Swimming Between Worlds

From the Publisher

08/28/2020

DEBUT The dramatic ups and downs of a young Indian woman's relationships are the focus of Rao's first novel, which centers on Tara, whose arranged marriage to an Indian immigrant living in Atlanta isn't what she expected. Tara was raised in a traditional Indian family in Mangalore, and expects to be a proper wife to Sanjay, even if it took three years after their marriage for him to bring Tara to the States. But Sanjay is distant and wants little to do with his new wife, leaving Tara feeling isolated. She befriends a Russian immigrant named Alyona, who helps her settle into her new American life, but Sanjay disapproves. His controlling behavior shifts to physical and emotional abuse, and Tara makes the difficult choice to leave her marriage, an act of independence that is shameful to her family. Although Tara finds a second chance at love with a man she knew as a teenager, the severed connection with her parents continues to haunt her. Flashbacks to Tara's youth, where she lived with her grandparents and a schizophrenic uncle while her parents and younger brother lived in Dubai, are interspersed throughout the book, revealing deep truths about Tara's hopes and fears. VERDICT This thoughtful, moving novel will appeal to readers who enjoy stories that explore the inner lives of women who are pushing against societal expectations.—Nanette Donohue, Champaign P.L., IL

Library Journal

2020-08-18
An Indian immigrant moves to Atlanta for an arranged marriage and undertakes a quest for identity in this debut novel.

When 8-year-old Tara’s father and pregnant mother immigrate to Dubai in the United Arab Emirates from Mangalore, India, to build a better life, she’s left behind with members of her extended family. Feeling abandoned, she takes refuge in reading, and her bookish nature leads her to obtain a master’s degree in English literature and employment as a journalist at the Morning Herald. Although she harbors dreams of becoming a fiction writer, her family is more interested in seeing her married off to a proper Hindu groom. As a result, Sanjay enters Tara’s life as an arranged husband. At 31, she uproots her life in India to join him in the American South. Rao’s prose brims with authentic scenes of Atlanta, set at the Decatur Farmers Market, Lindbergh, and cafes in Buckhead, navigating the Perimeter; autumn trees in the South are engagingly described as “eerie contortions of bare arms that stretched out toward a bitter sky.” Eventually, Tara learns that Sanjay passionately loves another woman, making her irrelevant. She and her husband continue to cohabitate until her independence threatens the insecure, jealous Sanjay. Rao unflinchingly and realistically portrays a cycle of domestic abuse that ends with Tara fighting for—and gaining—her freedom. Throughout the novel, childhood flashbacks introduce Tara’s past, including memories of an adolescent crush, Cyrus; they later rekindle their dormant romance. Empowered by her newfound sense of belonging, she effectively asserts her voice by writing an op-ed published for the Morning Herald. When controversy ensues, she stands tall, buoyed by her hard-won sense of self.

A moving and polished novel that highlights Rao’s literary promise.

Kirkus Reviews