The main plot of the story is woven around the gruesome tradition of selective feticide and infanticide of the girl child along with the cruelties and the misery of the victimized wives of domestic abuse. An endearing and emotional read about India's daughters. Of Janani, who kept losing her daughters to a horrific tradition of female infanticide. Of Nila, the only one Janani saved and raised in Australia. This is not a fast paced thriller. It’s meant to be read slowly. I savored the words, imagined the world Rajasree describes so beautifully, felt the pain, and thought deep thoughts. 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... While exploring the phenomenon of female infanticide, the story sensitively underlines the indomitable strength of women and the beautiful bond that mothers and daughters share. It also brings out the enigma of love and how it helps to defeat the obstacles in life.

This book focuses on the heart-wrenching practice of female infanticide; although illgeal in India since 1961, traditions persists and the practice continues in rural, isolated areas where such laws can not be enforced. The dowry system is a financial burden to the bride’s family and obviously more daughters equals more dowries or “gifts” to the grooms’ families. Instead of surrendering children to adoption; there are religious beliefs that advocate parental obligations to decide the fate of their children, rather than passing the decision to others. Mothers-in-law berate their dils while their sons spend all the hard earned money on their vices. Husbands are spineless in front of their mothers but show their so called masculinity by hitting of abusing their wives. Two of Janani's girl babies are killed because they are girls. No one views this as a crime. Rather, they view it as a honor killing.Heartrending but ultimately hopeful, this richly evocative and spellbinding book will touch your soul.”—Veronica Henry, author of How to Find Love in a Bookshop 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 seventh, the only girl, had slipped from his grasp as he swung her at the wall by her little feet. She had transformed into the mother Goddess in the sky above his head, and cursed Kamsa, reminding him of the prophecy that Devaki’s eighth child would kill him. There was no escaping fate.” It is a family saga replete with suspense, drama, love, trauma, sorrow, courage and success. The secrets women keep and must keep to protect the ones they love makes for a complex plot that also bursts with the colours, sounds and scents of India spanning three decades. I really enjoyed Nila’s story set in ‘present day’ which was told in alternate chapters to Janani’s story. There were some twists and turns along the way and assumptions that I had been making about the plot turned out to be incorrect.

Having a daughter is a curse. It’s the same as watering your neighbor’s plants and never your own.” - Janani Traversing through the streets of Madurai, the novel poses a delicate question of womanhood, infanticide and misogyny. Caught in the vicious cycle of patriarchy, countless women like Janani undergo oppression and believe it normal. Where there should be a celebration of a girl child, there’s nothing but intolerance. I enjoyed the family dynamics in the book. It was interesting to read Nila as the first person rather than Janani. The flip between the two timelines worked well. The Daughters of Madurai is a captivating and riveting debut from an unforgettable new voice.”—Louise O’Neill, author of Asking for It

There are too many unnecessary descriptions, especially in the initial chapters of the past timeline. This pulls down the pace. This book has two POVs. Janani lives in Madurai in 1992. Nila lives in Sydney in 2019. I guessed the connection long before it was mentioned, but as in other books with two POVs, one was clearly the winner for me. Janani's story captivated me from the first. Nila grew on me. Female Infanticide and all the obstacles and traditions that it brings including dowry, is the basis of this book. Janani is very often told by her mother in law that she is useless, because she keeps giving birth to daughters. They allow her to keep one, Lavanika. The others are killed. When other families in the same area give up their female babies to orphanages, they are looked down on, as this is more shameful than killing them.

I liked the bond of friendship Janani shares with fellow sufferer Shuba and the way they help and encourage each other but I found myself wanting more about Janani's journey to a different country after her second marriage. This is only hinted at but we never get to see what happened. Heartbreaking, emotional and thought-provoking… I will think about this story for a long time’ ALIYA ALI-AFZAL Rajasree expertly explores what it means to be a woman in southern India, the ugly truth about female infanticide, and the socioeconomic and caste divides that plague India still. The positive aspect of the book is the bold topic, especially for a debut novel. Set in two timelines that span the decades from 1993 to 2019, the story is about young mother Janani who is not allowed to raise the babies she births after her first one because they are girls and her husband and mil want only boys. Humiliated and oppressed by societal norms that mean she cannot defy the injustice, Janani feels stifled.The Daughters of Madurai by Rajasree Variyar is published with Orion Books and is described as a ‘heart-wrenching, thought-provoking book club debut’. Inspired by the horrific stories of female infanticide, Rajasree Variyar spent time at grass-roots level with a charity in Madurai. This charity was working to eliminate this barbaric act by educating and empowering the local community from a young age. After her experiences there, Rajasree Variyar took what she had witnessed first hand and created this emotive debut that highlights a mother’s heart-breaking fight for her unborn daughter. This will be a doozy of a point, so please bear with me. We Indians have distinct relationship words for almost every relation. Unlike English that has a simple grandmother, grandfather, sister-in-law, uncle, aunt, younger sister, and so on, most Indian languages have a specific word for each relationship. So a dad's sister and a mom's sister and an uncle's wife--all "aunts" in English--will be called by different words as per the specific relation. The issue is further complicated by the fact that India has a multitude of languages. So an elder brother will be called ‘Chetta’ in Malayalam, ‘Anna’ in Tamil, ‘Dada’ in Marathi and so on. Imagine throwing this complicated network of relations on unsuspecting Westerners! Forget Westerners, even I felt lost at times amid all the Acchachas and Veliammas and Ammayis and Kochachans in this novel. Having words from two languages—Tamil and Malayalam—added to the difficulty. I wonder how the intended readership in the US will cope with these. While THE DAUGHTERS OF MADURAI explores the harrowing issue of female infanticide, it’s also a universal story about the bond between mothers and daughters, the strength of women, the power of love in overcoming all obstacles --- and the secrets we must keep to protect the ones we hold dear.

This is the crux of this book. A mother who gives birth to sons are not useless. The daughters are viewed as a wasteful burden who only increase a family's struggles because they'll require dowries one day.

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I am not of Indian descent so I had so many words to look up and was very challenged trying to keep straight the character’s names, food names and terms of endearment. I don’t mind looking up words when I’m trying to understand another culture but between the jumping time line, challenging character names, and just sad, heartbreaking treatment of women I just had to push myself to finish this book. I wouldn’t have bothered if I wasn’t reading for book club.