Book
In the Shadow of the Banyan
In the Shadow of the Banyan is Vaddey Ratner's first novel, published in 2012, about a young girl's survival under the Khmer Rouge.[1][2] It is closely based on her own family's experience in Cambodia during the genocide.[3][2]
About the book
The story opens in Phnom Penh in April 1975, as the civil war between the U.S.-backed government and the Khmer Rouge reaches its end.[3] Seven-year-old Raami, who has had polio since infancy and walks with a brace, lives in a royal household with her mother, her baby sister Radana and their servants.[2][4] Her father, Sisowath Ayuravann, is a minor prince and a poet who reads his poems aloud to her.[2][3] The family is preparing for Khmer New Year when the Khmer Rouge take the city.[4]
The new regime, which the novel calls the Organization, orders the family out of Phnom Penh.[2][5] Raami's father is identified by his royal background and taken away, and is never seen again.[2] Raami and her mother are moved from village to village, through starvation, forced labor and the deaths of friends and relatives. Radana dies of malaria in the monsoon season, and Raami blames herself.[2][3] Across four years, Raami holds on to the legends and poems her father gave her, in a society where memory itself can be grounds for execution.[3] The novel ends early in 1979, as Vietnam's war with Cambodia drives the Khmer Rouge army into retreat.[6] The publisher gives an estimated two million deaths during those years.[4]
The title comes from a prophecy told by Grandmother Queen, that only a few people will remain in the shadow of a banyan tree.[3] Raami's full name, Vattaaraami, means that she is her father's temple, garden and sacred ground.[3]
Background
Ratner was a small child when the Khmer Rouge took power. She first tried to write the story as a memoir before turning it into a novel, drawing on her own memories, her mother's recollections, historical records and imagination.[3] Names are changed and some events combined, but Ratner kept her father's name to honor him, and her author's note states that the novel stays close to her memories.[2] She has said her aim was to honor the dead by turning suffering into art.[3]
Publication and editions
Simon & Schuster published the novel on July 31, 2012.[2] A Simon & Schuster UK edition followed.[3]
- 2012 hardcover, Simon & Schuster: ISBN 978-1-4516-5770-8, 336 pages[2]
- June 4, 2013, paperback, Simon & Schuster: ISBN 9781451657715, 352 pages[7]
- Simon & Schuster UK: ISBN 9781849837613[3]
Reception
The novel was a finalist for the 2013 PEN/Hemingway Award and the 2013 Indies Choice Book of the Year Award.[1][4] Kirkus Reviews found it often lyrical and a painful personal account of the genocide.[2] The Guardian read it as a story about power, love and guilt, and social class under extreme conditions.[5][3]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Wikipedia
- ↑ 2.00 2.01 2.02 2.03 2.04 2.05 2.06 2.07 2.08 2.09 2.10 Kirkus Reviews
- ↑ 3.00 3.01 3.02 3.03 3.04 3.05 3.06 3.07 3.08 3.09 3.10 3.11 Simon & Schuster UK
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 Simon & Schuster
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 The Guardian, review of In the Shadow of the Banyan (September 29, 2012)
- ↑ Goodreads, In the Shadow of the Banyan
- ↑ Bookreporter, review of In the Shadow of the Banyan