The Japanese Lover

By RANI MANICKA

RRP: $38.99, Hodder & Stoughton

‘Every end is a new beginning.’

Rani Manicka’s debut novel, The Rice Mother received international acclaim. Translated into twenty-two languages, its universal themes touched readers the world over. Reviewers compared her writing to Amy Tan, Isabel Allende and Arundhati Roy and it won the South East Asia and South Pacific Region 2003 Commonwealth Writers’ Prize.

The Japanese Lover is similarly inspired by Manicka’s Malaysian roots.

Parvathi is born in Ceylon in 1916. At her birth the priest declares ‘The child is destined to marry a man of truly immense wealth. But the marriage will be a disaster’.

The priest’s prediction proves true; betrayed by her father and sent away from her tiny village, Parvathi becomes the mistress of a luxurious Malayan estate, but it is a life without passion, and she yearns to love and be loved – with complete abandon.

When the Japanese invade Malaya, they requisition the estate and Parvathi is forced to make a split second decision to take the man who should have been her sworn enemy to be her lover. For the first time, she experiences sexual ecstasy. And gradually, her enemy becomes the lover she has always yearned for…

The Japanese Lover evokes a richly atmospheric world of seductive beauty and Eastern sensibility. It is a powerful and movie story that is emotionally satisfying and completely absorbing.

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