Rajasree Variyar

'A girl is a burden. A girl is a curse.' Madurai, 1992. A young mother in a poor family, Janani is told she is useless if she can't produce a son - or worse, bears daughters. They let her keep her first baby girl, but the rest are taken away as soon as they are born - murdered before they have a chance to live. The fate of her children has never been in her hands. But Janani can't forget the daughters she was never allowed to love. Sydney, 2019. Nila has a secret, one she's been keeping from her parents for far too long. Before she can say anything, her grandfather in India falls ill and she agrees to join her parents on a trip to Madurai - the first in over ten years. Growing up in Australia, Nila knows very little about where she or her family came from, or who they left behind. What she's about to learn will change her forever... Perfect for fans of Christy Lefteri and Delia Owens, The Daughters of Madurai is a moving and powerful debut from an unforgettable new voice.

The Daughters of Madurai

Lindsay

Such hard lives people live, Sanju, that they turn the beauty of God into evil.

Saffia

I read this in the articles and reports and books I've downloaded onto my phone.

There are a dozen reasons why so many families in India don't want a girl. Reasons rooted in India's centuries-old pastiche of traditions. When she gets married, her parents pay a dowry to the husband's family. It's supposed to be her inheritance, her share of their parents' wealth. It's illegal. It has been since 1961. But they

don't call it dowry anymore. They are "gifts', ounces of gold, white goods, land, piling high on her parents' shoulders, driving them into the dirt. More than one dowry can leave families destitute.

She doesn't carry the family name. Without a boy, the family dies. She has no independence of wealth. Until recently, she couldn't have a bank account without a husband or a father. She could not own property. In the records, in history, she doesn't exist.

Her education is basic. She struggles to earn income.

She can't perform her parents funeral rites. And without those rites, her parents will never reach nirvana. In some places, up north, there are so few girls now that they're kidnapped from other states, sold into marriage in families whose language they don't know. Sold into slavery.

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