Sacred Waters

ISBN 9789814779500

Meira Chand

epic

Historical Fiction

Categories:

Fiction

Synopsis

Specification

Holding the child in the crook of her arm, her mother stood up and walked towards the river. ‘Where are you going?’ Sita yelled, filled by new confusion. ‘I must wash her clean,’ her mother replied. Wading knee deep into the water, she lowered the child into the soft lapping swell, holding her there, caressing her tenderly all the while with her one free hand. For a moment Sita saw the child in her mother’s arms and the next she was gone, the tide lifting her free. Sita watched her float away, held briefly upon the rippling surface of the river before she sank slowly from sight, eyes open, a startled expression on her small face, uttering no cry of protest. ‘Amma!’ Sita screamed. ‘She was just a girl.’ Her mother spoke softly, her voice thick and strange. Orphaned as a child and widowed at thirteen, Sita has always known the shame of being born female in Indian society. Her life constrained and shaped by the men around her, she could not be more different from her daughter, Amita, a headstrong university professor determined to live life on her own terms. While trying to unravel the mysteries in her mother’s past, Amita encounters a traumatic event that leads her down the path of self-discovery. Unfolding simultaneously, their stories are set against the dramatic sweep of India’s anti-colonial struggle in the 1940s, and move between past and present, from rural India to the chaotic Burmese battlefront where Sita experiences life as a recruit in the Indian National Army, to modern-day Singapore. Richly layered and beautifully evocative, the novel is a compelling exploration of two women’s struggle to assert themselves in male-dominated societies of both the past and the present.

Born and educated in London, Meira Chand is of Swiss-Indian parentage. She studied art at St Martin’s School of Art & Design and later taught art at an international school in Japan before turning to writing. She has a PhD in Creative Writing from the University of Western Australia.

Her life is lived between East and West and the concept of Home is multifaceted. In 1962 she moved from London to Japan, living there until 1971, when she left to spend five years in India. In 1976 she returned again to Japan, residing there until 1997, when she relocated to Singapore, where she now lives. In 2011 she became a Singapore citizen.

Her multi-cultural heritage and the confluence of different cultures in her life is reflected in her novels, which explore issues of identity, belonging and cultural dislocation. Five of her novels are set in Japan – The Gossamer Fly (1979), Last Quadrant(1981), The Bonsai Tree (1983), The Painted Cage (1986) and A Choice of Evils (1996).

Contemporary India is the location of House of the Sun (1989) that, in 1990, was adapted for the stage in London where it had a successful run at Theatre Royal Stratford East. It was the first Asian play, with an all-Asian cast and direction, performed in London. The play was voted “Critic’s Choice” by Time Out magazine. Also set in India, but in Calcutta during the early days of the Raj, A Far Horizon (2001) considers the notorious story of the Black Hole of Calcutta.

Set against the backdrop of Singapore, A Different Sky (2010) follows the lives of three families through the 30 tumultuous years leading up to Singapore’s independence. On its publication, the novel was a “Book of the Month choice” by the UK bookshop chain, Waterstones, and was on Oprah Winfrey’s recommended reading list. It was also long-listed for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award in 2012.

Her latest novel, Sacred Waters (2017), moves between two timelines, stretching from India to Singapore and Burma, and is a compelling exploration of two women’s struggle to assert themselves in male-dominated societies of the past and the present.

In Singapore she is involved in many programmes to promote literature and mentor young writers. She is a board member of the National Arts Council.

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