Purple Lotus

I indulged my love of India fiction with Purple Lotus.  This beautiful book is the debut novel of Veena Rao, who was a finalist in the 2021 Georgia Author of the Year Award.  In addition, she was a finalist in several other book of the year awards for this novel.  Purple Lotus tells the tale of a woman's journey from a pariah in India to a free-spirited woman in the American South. 

The publisher's summary:

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. 

This story ends with a bang.  Tara's newspaper article in the Morning Herald about her journey ends the novel. Her aunt makes an observation about her that gives us the title of the book. Aunty says that Tara has always been a shrinking violet. Tara responds that she is not a shrinking violet but rather a purple lotus. It was lovely ending to a lovely story.  Perhaps, you could say that Tara finally grew up.

It's impossible not to have empathy for this character. Tara has to endure emotional abuse from her parents and then from her husband. After several years of marriage, that abuse becomes physical. Thanks to strangers in her Atlanta, Georgia neighborhood, she finds the courage to face Sanjay and demand a divorce. Sanjay, of course, complains about this demand to her parents. Tara then receives more emotional abuse from her parents who tell her it is her job to make the marriage work. She must sacrifice her needs to her husband and eventually it will all work out. However, her American friends from the local church encourage her to leave Sanjay. Tara breaks free from her marriage but still has to consider her self-worth in order to be free.

Purple Lotus shows us that you may not come of age until you are much older than the 18 year old norm. Tara was 36 when she realized her worth.  Not every person starts out in life with all the necessary tools for a healthy existence. Some of us take longer.  The point here is that you can grow if you have the courage.

5 out of 5 stars.