THE WHITE LOTUS

I can hardly imagine it but everything will be different tomorrow. Ive looked forward to it for years. Ill truly be Sundarams wife together in body as in spirit . . .But that tomorrow never comes and at just fourteen Aru is left a widow. Worse the village whispers name Sundaram a drunkard and a thiefthe thief who called down the wrath of the local goddess by stealing the most precious jewel from her temple. The future Aru once envisioned vanishes leaving only bleak and endless days ahead. So when a ray of hope appears in the form of the landlord''s children offering her a job as their grandmother''s companion Aru seizes the opportunity.In the landlord''s house Aru gains an education finds that her charge is an unexpected ally and dreams impossibly of having a profession of her own one day. But she also learns uncomfortable truths. Soon her very life is in danger . . .The White Lotus is a gripping murder mystery and a rich social portrait of the plight of widows in rural Tamil Nadu at the very start of the twentieth century.