![]() ![]() He dives deeply into Mala's family history, uncovering years of trauma passed down through generations and - staggeringly, beautifully - the love that has survived through it all. This is Mala's story, and an appeal to find Asha, told in Tyler's words. A passage from Shani Mootoos 1996 novel Cereus Blooms at Night demonstrates the authors fascination with flora, fauna, and the language of natural history: 'At first, Aves, Hexapoda. ![]() Despite Mala's muteness, she manages to communicate with Tyler about her missing sister, Asha. Here she meets Tyler, the only openly queer person on the island of Lantanacamara with whom she feels an affinity as an outsider. ![]() But with no body, no evidence and no witnesses, Mala is sent to an Alms House as a madwoman instead of prison. In Cereus Blooms by Night Shani Mootoo leads us gently into the heart and mind of old Mala Ramchandin as, lying mad in a hospital bed tended by gay male nurse Tyler, she recounts her tragic history via a stream of demented ramblings. 'A Caribbean classic' Monique Roffey, author of The Mermaid of Black ConchĮveryone in Paradise thinks Mala Ramchandin is a murderer. ![]()
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