A Book Review By Gill Sherry

The Secret of Elephants

Vasundra Tailor

The Secret of Elephants is a family saga set in India and tells a story of betrayal that impacts three generations of the same family.

The author sets the scene well, with the city of Navsari playing a central role. You can almost smell the spices in the street food, hear the buzz of the rickshaws, see the scrawny cows as they wander aimlessly through the neighbourhood.

The story begins with Harilal, Kanta and their children and a tragedy from which they will never recover. Rather than comforting each other in their shared grief, they turn against each other in anger. Inexplicably, the eldest daughter, Jasumati, cannot bring herself to be kind to her younger brother, Suresh. As a result, the conflict and animosity continues into adulthood and through to the next generation.

Nirmala is Suresh’s daughter and has never understood why her aunt Jasumati is so cruel. As Nirmala and her family struggle in their impoverished home, Jasumati watches on from her luxury mansion, indifferent to her niece’s situation.

The author’s descriptions provide wonderful imagery:

“Turning to the mirror on the wall, Nirmala studied her appearance. The chandlo on her forehead had moved from the centre position and a few strands of hair had escaped the knot at the back of her head. Big brown eyes stared back at her, looking wistful, as if she was longing for something she couldn’t have.”

To make matters worse, Nirmala is trapped in a loveless marriage. Her husband is cruel to both her and their son, a son who is sick and needs expensive medicine which the family cannot afford.

When a letter arrives from Zimbabwe, addressed to Nirmala’s long-dead father, she begins to believe she can unravel the mystery that surrounds their family and finally reveal the cause of the decades long rift.

Travelling to Africa, she meets family members of which she had no previous knowledge, relatives deliberately kept secret for reasons she couldn’t begin to understand. She enjoys getting to know her new, extended family and marvels at the culture and landscape of a country she never dreamt she would visit.

“Every so often, they went past small round mud huts with thatched roofs set a little distance away from the road. A few families sat outside the huts idly watching the cars go by. Some had tethered goats nearby and chickens roaming freely around them.”

During her stay in Zimbabwe, she uncovers documents that shed light on a devastating truth. It changes everything she thought she knew about her family and alters her own circumstances very much for the better.

As a protagonist, Nirmala gains the support of the reader from the very start. She is the innocent party who is bullied and controlled by her husband and neglected by her callous aunt. But suspense is maintained throughout the book as tales of adultery and deceit thread through the chapters creating a roller-coaster of emotions and a sense of intrigue.

The shocking secret that ties the story together is, indeed, just that. It provides an unexpected twist in the brilliantly told tale that results in revelations aplenty! In short, it’s an impressive debut novel that’s as authentic as it is entertaining.

With so many Indian names to remember, the family tree at the beginning of the book is a very welcome addition. The author also explains some of the honorific suffixes used in Indian culture such as Ba (mother), Jija (sister’s husband) and Masaji (mother’s sister’s husband); terms without which, the book would lose its authenticity.

You’d be forgiven for thinking that the book’s title is, perhaps, a little misleading. However, it is in fact an ornamental elephant that drives the plot of this excellent novel. Would you know the difference between an Indian and an African elephant...?