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Burnt Sugar

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Burnt Sugar

By: Avni Doshi
Narrated by: Vineeta Rishi
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About this listen

SHORTLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE 2020: A searing, compulsively readable story of mothers and daughters, memory and madness, love and betrayal

PICKED AS A BOOK OF THE YEAR 2020 BY the Guardian, Economist, Spectator and more...

In her youth, Tara was wild. She abandoned her arranged marriage to join an ashram, took a hapless artist for a lover, rebelled against every social expectation of a good Indian woman - all with her young child in tow. Years on, she is an old woman with a fading memory, mixing up her maid's wages and leaving the gas on all night, and her grown-up daughter is faced with the task of caring for a mother who never seemed to care for her.

This is a poisoned love story. But not between lovers - between mother and daughter. Sharp as a blade and laced with caustic wit, Burnt Sugar gradually untangles the knot of memory and myth that bind two women together, revealing the truth that lies beneath.

©2020 Avni Doshi (P)2020 Penguin Audio Dark Humour Family Life Fiction Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Literature & Fiction Comedy

Critic Reviews

"Taut, unsettling, ferocious." (Fatima Bhutto, author of The Runaways)

"Acerbic, full of wit and cool intelligence - every sentence is a coiled spring and each psychological portrait burns itself into the mind. I couldn't put it down." (Olivia Sudjic, author of Exposure and Sympathy)

"Crystalline, surgical, compulsively readable. An examination of toxic relationships and the ties that bind us." (Sharlene Teo, author of Ponti)
All stars
Most relevant  
This story is an excellent example of description and mental illness through an Indian woman’s eyes. I have listened to this book 3 weeks ago and I am still thinking about it. Her story of Neglect, love and sanity is very unique and compelling.

Intriguing and thoughtful

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While the writing is evocative and the characters complex, nothing happens. No self actualisation, surprise, redemption, hope - nothing. I found it depressing. The main character is unlikeable and neurotic and most of the book is her bitching about everyone in her life.

Depressing, leads nowhere

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very disappointed to listen to the whole book only to hear the story just fizzling out with no proper ending

Disappointing

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