In Valmiki's Daughter, Giller Prize finalist and bestselling novelist Shani Mootoo returns to some of the themes she first explored in her breakout book, Cereus Blooms at Night, to offer a hugely entertaining and hypnotically beautiful family saga.The story centers on a wealthy Trinidadian family -- in particular, Valmiki, a renowned doctor and loving, if confused, father; and his youngest daughter, Viveka, lively, intelligent, and intent on escaping the gilded cage that protects but also smothers her.

With this masterful novel, Mootoo peels back layers of prejudice to expose the complex interaction of race, gender, class, and sexuality. Discerning but non-judgmental, she eases us deep into the fascinating lives of her characters and creates a juicy, sexy, beautiful book, full of the vigorous stuff of life.

SHANI MOOTOO was born in Ireland and raised in Trinidad. Her poetry books include Oh Witness Dey!, Cane | Fire, and The Predicament of Or. She is the author of several novels, including Cereus Blooms at Night, now a Penguin Modern Classic and a Vintage Classics book, and Polar Vortex, both shortlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize. Mootoo's novels have been long and shortlisted for the Booker Prize, the Scotiabank Giller Prize, and the Dublin Literary Award, among others. Her prose and poetry have been widely anthologized, , including in Trinidad Noir, Trinidad Noir: The Classics, and The Haunted Tropics, and her poetry has appeared in Wasafiri, Poetry Magazine, Audemas, and Room Magazine, among other magazines and journals. She has been awarded the Doctor of Letters honoris causa degree from Western University and is a recipient of Lambda Literary's James Duggins Outstanding Mid-Career Novelist Prize and the Writers' Trust Engel Findley Award. She lives in Southern Ontario, Canada.

Shani Mootoo's profile page

• Long-listed, Scotiabank Giller Prize

A masterful storyteller.

Washington Post

[Valmiki's Daughter is] an in-depth exploration of willful miscommunication and suppressed desire...A wise and skillful guide to their dark, complicated world...a stand-out novel that offers a nuanced look at families that fail to nurture

Montreal Gazette

Highly charged and downright explosive. Mootoo's description of sexual awakening is one of the most poignant I've run across.

Xtra

Valmiki's Daughter weaves together vingettes that are seemingly borrowed from life itself.

The Telegraph, Kolkalta

Shani Mootoo elevates her material through deft characterization, an ever-building sense of urgency, and her obvious love for an island landscape...

Georgia Straight

Mootoo's prose is vivid, poetic and passionate. She takes no easy routes with the narrative. This is a writer who knows how to satisfy the reader...NNNN

NOW Magazine

What make's Mootoo's book worth reading is how she takes a simple plot and brings it to life through her deft characterisation and an ever-present sense of urgency.

The Asian Age, New Delhi

[Valmiki's Daughter] shimmers with passion; with the heat of desires denied. Heavy with smells, rich with flavours and throbbing with music, it is a feast for the senses. The landscape serves as a metaphor for sexuality: the dangerous jungle of unleashed desires vie with the manicured lawns of nature suppressed...Readers can look to this book as a tropical respite from a bitter winter's chill.

Winnipeg Free Press

What's most striking...is her elucidation of the tragic ways in which stereotypes of race, gender and sexuality ensnare the young.

The Times of India

Mootoo's sense of narrative pacing verges on genius.

Edmonton Journal

Mootoo's talent for writing vivid and redolent landscapes is one of the hallmarks of her work...An intricately woven and thoughtfully constructed book.

Caribbean Review of Books

A readable family saga...[Valmiki's Daughter] is possessed of a droll, knowing humour...[Shani Mootoo] gives us a view of Trinidad we have not had before.

Globe and Mail

It's a vibrating and uplifting book.

Deccan Herald, Bangalore

Mootoo can be counted as one of our most gifted writers.

Vancouver Sun

Impressive...Mootoo has an impeccable ear...authentic and powerful.

New York Times Book Review

A novel for both brain and heart: at once wise and smouldering...

Camilla Gibb

A writer with a generous spirit and a gift for storytelling.

Globe and Mail

Blurb

DNA Mumbai