Children of Sugarcane - Joanne Joseph - ★★★.¾

AUTHOR: Joanne Joseph

NARRATOR: Roshina Ratnam

GENRE: Historical Fiction

PUBLICATION DATE: September 1, 2021

RATING: 3.75 stars.

In a Nutshell: A historical fiction novel focusing on Indian indentured labourers in Port Natal. Compelling lead character, interesting story, decent writing, great research. Does well to focus on a history not often told. A good debut novel. Recommended. Not for sensitive readers.

Plot Preview:

1860. Fourteen-year-old Shanti lives with her parents in a small village near Madras Province in South India. When she is faced with the prospect of a forced arranged marriage, Shanti decides to contact the local agent who sends people to a better future in Port Natal by working on sugarcane farms. But once she arrives in Natal after a harrowing sea journey, she realises that the stories she had heard were nothing but myth. Now all that lies ahead for Shanti is hard labour at a pittance and no way of going back home. Can she somehow make her dreams come true in this unknown land?

The story, spanning two continents and multiple decades, comes to us in Shanti’s first-person perspective, as a journal entry read by her daughter in 1916.

Historical fiction fans often read slave narratives focussing on people of African origin who were enslaved in the USA. But hardly any book focusses on those of Indian origin who were taken by the British under false promises only to work as indentured labourers in Africa and the Caribbean. Even we Indians don’t learn of this important part of our past in our school history textbooks. Here is one novel that attempts to throw light on this unknown aspect of British colonialism in India. The story is partly inspired by the experiences of the author’s great-grandmother.

Bookish Yays:

👏🏻 The author's note at the start, explaining some of the history and her writing choices. It helps that the author is a South African of Indian origin. Her research is very evident in the novel.

👏🏻 Shanti. A well-carved lead character who strives to break free of shackles without sounding like a 21st century woman.

👏🏻 Several secondary characters, whether of Indian, British or other origin. I like how the author didn’t paint everyone with the same brush. There were good and bad characters on all sides.

👏🏻 The portrayal of historical South India and the nuanced depiction of its values and restrictions.

👏🏻 The depiction of the missionary priest – so unlike typical missionary characters. It was good to see a positive portrayal of a priest.

👏🏻 The plight of indentured labourers (Indian and others) under the British in South Africa. There is a lot of brutality and misery in the book, though it feels appropriate to the plot.

👏🏻 Despite the above negative elements, the book also contains a lot of positive attributes such as hope, love, courage, friendship, faith in education, and so on. This balances the overall tone and adds realism to the plot.

👏🏻 The trial in the final section. Very convincing.

Bookish Okays:

✋🏻 The love story. Felt a bit clichéd though not corny. I like that it never overpowered the main plot.

✋🏻 The passing of time isn't always clear.

✋🏻 The dialogues are a bit too filmic at times. The rest of the writing is simple but fulfils the purpose.

Bookish Nays:

👊🏻 The prologue set in 1916. Interesting to some extent, but gives us two major spoilers from the main part of the story, which reduces the crucial suspense during the finale. Plus, a certain new relationship was not relevant to the main storyline. The novel would have been much better without this prologue.

👊🏻 A certain act at the ending of the main plot. Not very convincing.

🎧 The Audiobook Experience:

The audiobook, clocking at 11 hrs 45 min, is narrated by Roshina Ratnam. She does a fabulous job voicing all characters with appropriate emotions. As the book is mostly linear in its narration, the audiobook would be a great way to experience this powerful story.

Overall, despite the few issues I had, I still enjoyed learning about this unknown part of Indian history. Hardly any books focus on this part of our past, so the novel turned out to be very informative. The writing is a bit simplistic, but the book is still worth a read for the topic it chooses to shed light on. For a debut novel, this does quite well.

Recommended to readers of historical fiction. Note that this is not a comfortable read and contains several triggering elements.