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Burnt Sugar

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Burnt Sugar

By: Avni Doshi
Narrated by: Vineeta Rishi
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About this listen

SHORTLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE 2020: A searing, compulsively readable story of mothers and daughters, memory and madness, love and betrayal

PICKED AS A BOOK OF THE YEAR 2020 BY the Guardian, Economist, Spectator and more...

In her youth, Tara was wild. She abandoned her arranged marriage to join an ashram, took a hapless artist for a lover, rebelled against every social expectation of a good Indian woman - all with her young child in tow. Years on, she is an old woman with a fading memory, mixing up her maid's wages and leaving the gas on all night, and her grown-up daughter is faced with the task of caring for a mother who never seemed to care for her.

This is a poisoned love story. But not between lovers - between mother and daughter. Sharp as a blade and laced with caustic wit, Burnt Sugar gradually untangles the knot of memory and myth that bind two women together, revealing the truth that lies beneath.

©2020 Avni Doshi (P)2020 Penguin Audio Dark Humour Family Life Fiction Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Literature & Fiction Comedy

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Critic reviews

"Taut, unsettling, ferocious." (Fatima Bhutto, author of The Runaways)

"Acerbic, full of wit and cool intelligence - every sentence is a coiled spring and each psychological portrait burns itself into the mind. I couldn't put it down." (Olivia Sudjic, author of Exposure and Sympathy)

"Crystalline, surgical, compulsively readable. An examination of toxic relationships and the ties that bind us." (Sharlene Teo, author of Ponti)
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I’m not sure what to say about this one. It has been nominated for various prestigious book prizes but I cannot fathom why. It is a dull, plodding story about a toxic mother-daughter relationship, toxic marriages, failing careers, alternative lifestyles and the effects of dementia on the sufferer and their carers. It is hard to think of anything positive about this book.

I kept going with the story, even though it was lacklustre and hard to engage with. I nearly gave up but kept hoping that something would happen to grab my attention; it didn’t. My main problem was that every character had fatal character flaws; they were selfish, unreliable, unlikeable with barely a redeeming feature between them.

The narration was not brilliant; the narrator’s voice was a bit too bland, lacking in contrast and variety.

Sorry I couldn’t give it a better review.

Disappointing

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This is a meditation on memory it's function and also just through an accident of Birth family can have the potential to destroy you from the inside out rather than nurture.

This book is set in semi rural India and tells the story of a dysfunctional mother daughter relationship and how a diagnosis of dementia shifts the dynamic.

A poetic book beautifully performed

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A heartwarming and heartbreaking book. The characters have depth and I like the way it pings back and forth in time to keep the reader informed. I fell in love with India a little more. A brilliant read!

I adored this book

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What a beautiful and painful journey . as an Indian women I found it relatable and so poignant. I can't recommend it enough ❤

breathtaking

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This is a beautiful and harrowing story of the ambivalence in motherhood and art and illness. It was beautifully narrated . Sad , sweet , honest and scary . I liked that in the voice of Antara you could love and be slightly repulsed by the same person .

Loved the story and the narration

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I couldn't really get into this book I am surprised it is shortlisted for the Booker ,for me there was little in it that was orginal .

ok

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struggled to really get into this. some parts were almost gripping but most not so much

good in some places, but trails off in others

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I found the authors language quite interesting and poetic .. I loved her description of characters and dissection of situations
I thought narration was somewhat nervous

Interesting description

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has high hopes for this book but the story was flat, the narrators attempts at an American accent and the ability to perform multiple characters we awkward and cringworthy and irritating

flat from start the finish

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I’m not convinced this should win the Booker Prize this year. It’s a pretty good read however I didn’t feel anything particularly for the characters and there were too many sidelines to the relationship between the main mum and daughter protagonists. It got confusing and I couldn’t figure out if there was some kind of point to it all. It’s not a read I’m rushing out to recommend to everyone as I have done with it’s Booker competitor Shuggie Bain. Maybe it would resonate more on a second read.

A debut that feels like too much is packed into it

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