Burnt Sugar

Written by Avni Doshi

Narrated by Sneha Mathan

Shortlisted for the 2020 Booker Prize, a searing literary debut novel set in India about mothers and daughters, obsession and betrayal

“I would be lying if I said my mother’s misery has never given me pleasure,” says Antara, Tara’s now-adult daughter.

This is a love story and a story about betrayal—not between lovers but between a mother and a daughter. … In her youth, Tara was wild. She abandoned her arranged marriage to join an ashram, embarked on a stint as a beggar (mostly
to spite her affluent parents), and spent years chasing a disheveled, homeless “artist,” all with little Antara in tow.

But now Tara is forgetting things, and Antara is an adult—an artist and married—and must search for a way to make peace with a past that haunts her as she confronts the task of caring for a woman who never cared for her.

Sharp as a blade and laced with caustic wit, Burnt Sugar unpicks the slippery, choking cord of memory and myth that binds mother and daughter: Is Tara’s memory loss real? Are Antara’s memories fair? In vivid and visceral prose, Avni
Doshi tells a story at once shocking and empathetic of a mother-daughter relationship and a daughter’s search for self. A journey into shifting memories, altering identities, and the subjective nature of truth, Burnt Sugar is the stunning
and unforgettable debut of a major new voice in contemporary fiction.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Recorded Books, Inc.
• Release date: Jan 26, 2021
• ISBN: 9781705028674

Reviews for Burnt Sugar

[dreesie-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This book is a wonderful look at a very difficult mother-daughter relationship, as well as the tendency for a new mom to disappear when people come to see the baby. I really liked this and want to read more by this author, though there were a few things I wanted to know more about. Did Antara or her mother continue to see/write to Kali Mata until her death? Antara seems to view her as the woman who truly raised her, but did they lose touch during her adolescence? Dilip is American, but there is very little about what that means for the story, other than occasional mentions of maybe moving--no real job search or paperwork or discussion. So why is it here?———Antara is an adult and married, and her 50-something mother Tara is forgetting things. Soon she is wandering, setting fires, and needs to be watched. Her own mother is getting to be too feeble to do the watching. Antara tries, but is soon in a downward spiral related to her own pregnancy, probable postpartum depression, and her memories of her strange childhood. She was always in her mother's way, and her mother is more than happy to tell her that now. Antara struggles with her mother leaving her father for a guru. With her father having remarried and having a younger son whom Anatara doesn't know. Her mother took her to the guru's ashram for years, where another woman, Kali, cared for her. Then she had them begging on the streets, to get at her own wealthy parents. Now, she insults Antara's artwork and claims the baby as her own.

[beth.clarke · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

My expectations may have been too high. I loved the idea of this novel, but found myself reading just to get to the ending without caring much about the characters.

[ridgewaygirl · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Antara and her mother have always had a difficult relationship and now her mother, in her fifties, has dementia. As she struggles to find a solution to her mother's care, the novel goes back in time to her unconventional upbringing in an ashram where her mother leaves her to be cared for by an American woman when she becomes the guru's newest paramour. Her adolescence and young adulthood are likewise marked by abuse and insecurity. Neither Antara nor her mother are able to relate to each other with love or respect and their other relationships are marked by conflict and manipulation. An author takes a risk in choosing to write about an unsympathetic character. It's a balancing act to make the narrator unpleasant and to still have the reader invested in what happens to the narrator. And whether you think that Doshi succeeds in this will determine how you react to this novel. Doshi provides Antara with a childhood that should make the reader root for her and to understand why she is unable to form bonds with anyone, but then she multiplies the many ways Anatara's inability to form attachments harms the people around her. This isn't an easy novel to read, nor is it intended to be.

[muddyboy · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A very unique and thoughtful novel centering on a young lady with profound "mommy" issues. Though married, Antara's mother always looms large in her life especially now that mom is exhibiting Alzheimer's issues. But, Antara's whole life has been a struggle to get any kind of love or validation from her mother. She is never good enough. Toward the end of the novel things are further complicated by Antara's pregnancy and birth of a daughter. A very nice debut novel.

[chrisblocker · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Burnt Sugar is an uneven story of highs and lows. Truly, I love the premise that explores this idea of a daughter neglected by her mother, now placed in a position of care for her mother. And Avni Doshi does a tremendous job of drawing out the emotions involved in this situation. I really loved the concept, as well as the characters. It is here where this novel thrives.The story itself meanders far too much, however, growing confusing at times. At its best, the story is quite interesting, wonderfully paced, and gorgeously written. At its worst, it can be a bit of a dry read, incorporating elements and scenes that don't quite gel with the novel's best moments.(Advanced Reader Copy provided by the publisher through Edelweiss.)

[miss.mesmerized · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Artist Antara has just been married when her mother Tara shows first signs of Alzheimer’s disease. With her mother losing her memory gradually, the daughter starts to remember what they both went through. The time when her father still lived with them, then, the time at an ashram where kids where more or less left to themselves while Tara was deeply in love with a guru, her time at a Christian, yet not so very philanthropic and humane, boarding school. As an adult, Antara learns that there are rules she is not aware of but which are highly important to others e.g. for her mother-in-law and which she better adhered to. "I would be lying if I said my mother's misery has never given me pleasure."Avni Doshi’s debut novel has been shortlisted for the 2020 Booker Prize, the first draft was written during a stay India and won the Tibor Jones South Asia Prize, all in all, it took her seven years to complete the book. The relationship between mother and daughter always remains the main focus of Antara’s thinking and her art since she is under a constant emotional pressure. Even though it is highly toxic, she cannot – of course – get rid of it. The author’s observation and especially the way she describes the mother’s gradual memory loss are particularly striking. The contrast between tradition and a modern way of life, obviously present everywhere in India, is also powerfully depicted. Having heard so much praise of the novel I really was looking forward to read it, yet, I struggled with the negativity. The relationship between mother and daughter, the mother’s neglect of her small child, the injustice Antara experiences again and again – it is not easy to endure. Maybe it just wasn’t the best time to read it – 2020 has offered by far enough negative news and after months of pandemic, who doesn’t slowly become depressed?

[dubaireader · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Strange.(Also published as The Girl in White Cotton)What is it about the novels for the Booker Prize nominations, there are always some very weird choices? I read this with my book group and it certainly produced an interesting discussion, but a unanimously poor score of 3 stars. It investigates the relationship between a mother and daughter, living in India amidst ashrams and apartment blocks.Anantara is the narrator and Tara, her mother, is sinking into early dementia. Although Tara had pretty much abandoned four-year-old Anantara when they entered the ashram, Anantara is trying to help her mother as her disease progresses. By now Anantara is married to Dilip, but it appears to be a loveless marriage.There are a lot of flash-backs explaining the history of Tara and her daughter, including a rather confusing episode in the ashram, that I had to listen to twice. Characters are introduced before we understand their importance to the narrative, which didn't make for easy listening as I feel that require a framework on which to hang my characters as I meet them. There is also an unnecessary obsession with bodily fluids, particularly saliva. If I were reading on the Kindle I would search the word saliva to find out just how often it is mentioned but I'd hazard a guess that its around fifteen times.I enjoyed the concept of art as performed by Anantara; she draws the same face every day for a year, only copying the previous drawing - a kind of Chinese Whispers in art. I imagined this as an illustration of the progression of the dementia.The narrator, Vineeta Rishi, was excellent, I loved how she swapped from English to accented Indian-English for the conversation of the older women.The ending of this book was a total non-event but I felt the author has left herself open to a sequel, maybe situated in either US or Dubai. The question is: would I read it?

[boredgames · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Sharp, elegantly written but feels a little incomplete