Wild Boar in the Cane Field - by Anniqua Rana (Paperback)

About the Book

In a world of magic realism, a fly-covered baby girl is found and raised by two mothers in a South Asia community rife with rituals and superstition. The girl pursues acceptance at all costs, while the villagers seek sanctity at a shrine dedicated to the Keeper of the Flies, which is separated from the village by the dangerous cane field.

Book Synopsis

One day, a baby girl, Tara, is found, abandoned and covered in flies. She is raised by two mothers in a community rife with rituals and superstition. As she grows, Tara pursues acceptance at all costs. Saffiya, her adoptive mother, and Bhaggan, Saffiya's maidservant, are victims of the men in their community, and the two women, in turn, struggle and live short but complicated lives. The only way for the villagers to find solace is through the rituals of ancient belief systems. Tara lives in a village that could be any village in South Asia, and she dies, like many young women in the area, during childbirth. Her short life is dedicated to her efforts to find happiness, despite the fact that she has no hope of going to school or making any life choices in the feudal, patriarchal world in which she finds herself. Poignant and compelling, Wild Boar in the Cane Field depicts the tragedy that often characterizes the lives of those who live in South Asia--and demonstrates the heroism we are all capable of even in the face of traumatic realities.

Review Quotes

"A coming-of-age story that blends excellent prose with a downbeat plot." --Kirkus Reviews "In The Shrine of Sain Makhianwala [chapter], we are gifted a world that is vibrant and richly imagined. The narrative voice is tender and patient in its portrayal of how tradition touches modernity, how the ancients sway the imaginations of the young." --Shanthi Sekaran, judge for novels at the Mendocino's Writer's Conference "[Rana's] use of evocative metaphors creates a world that is simultaneously intense and bleak, reminiscent of the prose of Thomas Hardy and rural England. At the same time, Rana uses magical-realism as a technique to carry the reader into a world where the supernatural is a relevant to the lives of its inhabitants as the mundane events of a village. It is this combination of literary styles that creates a unique experience for the reader. This debut novel is a truly authentic depiction of the reality of rural Pakistan." --The Daily Times of Pakistan "Immersive and intense, Wild Boar in the Cane Field, a novel by Anniqua Rana, explores the resilience of one woman's spirit in the face of adversity." --NRI Pulse "Rana gives us a compelling and rare glimpse into the life of rural Pakistan in her novel Wild Boar in the Cane Field." -- Bapsi Sidhwa, internationally acclaimed and award-winning Pakistani novelist