Location via proxy:   [ UP ]  
[Report a bug]   [Manage cookies]                
Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    From $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Riambel
    Riambel
    Riambel
    Ebook161 pages2 hours

    Riambel

    By Priya Hein

    4/5

    ()

    Read preview

    • Nature

    • Family

    • Identity

    • Fear

    • Mauritius

    • Fish Out of Water

    • Forbidden Love

    • Rags to Riches

    • Love Triangle

    • Star-Crossed Lovers

    • Outsider

    • Fear of the Unknown

    • Food Preparation

    • Mentorship

    • Love at First Sight

    • Survival

    • Power Dynamics

    • Ocean

    • Cooking

    • Love

    About this ebook

    Fifteen-year-old Noemi has no choice but to leave school and work in the house of the wealthy De Grandbourg family. Just across the road from the slums where she grew up, she encounters a world that is starkly different from her own – yet one which would have been all too familiar to her ancestors. Bewitched by a pair of green eyes and haunted by echoes, her life begins to mirror those of girls who have gone before her.

    Within Noemi's lament is also the herstory of Mauritius; the story of women who have resisted arrest, of teachers who care for their poorest pupils and encourage them to challenge traditional narratives, of a flawed Paradise undergoing slow but unstoppable change.

    In Riambel, Priya Hein invites us to protest, to rail against longstanding structures of class and ethnicity. She shows us a world of natural enchantment contrasted with violence and the abuse of power. This seemingly simple tale of servitude, seduction and abandonment blisters with a fierce sense of injustice.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherThe Indigo Press
    Release dateFeb 23, 2023
    ISBN9781911648505
    Riambel

    Related to Riambel

    Related ebooks

    Feminist Fiction For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • UNLIMITED

      A Year in Reading: C Pam Zhang

      Dec 11, 2019

      It was the last year of my third decade on this earth, and it seems with every passing year I grow increasingly alien to that earth, or it to me. The post A Year in Reading: C Pam Zhang appeared first on The Millions.

      4 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Lust, Loss, and Liberation in Jenny Erpenbeck’s ‘Kairos’

      Jun 1, 2023

      Maybe this novel is a Bildungsroman about freedom, with young Katharina its hero and the West her inevitable liberation? The post Lust, Loss, and Liberation in Jenny Erpenbeck’s ‘Kairos’ appeared first on The Millions.

      5 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      When Lanka Burned

      Apr 29, 2023

      In her powerful novel Brotherless Night, V.V. Ganeshananthan tells the devastating story of the Sri Lankan Tamil conflict that burned for decades on the front pages of newspapers. Her narrator is Sashikala Kulenthiren, who is 16 as the story begins.

      2 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Naomi Hobson

      May 25, 2023

      Naomi Hobson
      6 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      You Have to Suffer

      Sep 23, 2020

      You Have to Suffer
      19 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Book Club

      Jul 1, 2023

      Meet the award-winnig Trini author of Hungry Ghosts Tell us about your journey to becoming a successful writer. Growing up, I wasn't always interested in writing as much as I was in storytelling. I enjoyed listening to my family tell stories about a

      2 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      On Country

      Nov 9, 2016

      On Country
      5 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Universal Truths

      Jun 20, 2021

      Universal Truths
      2 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Orlando Spirit Of The Age

      Jun 11, 2019

      Orlando Spirit Of The Age
      5 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Enter: The New Daughters Of Africa

      Feb 25, 2019

      What a joy to be introducing you to New Daughters of Africa. Enabling the anthology to be assembled in record time, writers not only came on board with enthusiasm and alacrity but often steered me in the direction of others whose work they admire. Al

      2 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Books

      Aug 8, 2022

      Books
      6 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Bundles

      Feb 15, 2021

      Bundles
      4 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      A Path Through the Woods

      May 30, 2023

      A Path Through the Woods
      3 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      BOOKS TO READ in January/February

      Dec 16, 2019

      The Giver of Stars by Jojo Moyes (Michael Joseph, R270) This love letter to the power of books and literature, and female friendship, is inspired by a true story. Alice Wright has travelled halfway across the world to escape her stifling existence in

      4 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Great Read

      Jun 16, 2021

      Great Read
      4 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      A Sense Of Place

      Mar 14, 2018

      A Sense Of Place
      6 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Southern Stand

      Mar 16, 2020

      Southern Stand
      5 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Books

      Jun 30, 2021

      Africa has long been a source of inspiration for writers, so we asked our contributors to propose books that have meant something to them BY ERNEST HEMINGWAY This is embarrassing to say as a black man, but very few people have written about wild Afri

      3 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Towns Like Ours

      May 3, 2018

      Towns Like Ours
      9 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      How The World Turns A Blind Eye To African Slavery

      Oct 27, 2022

      SINCE I WAS OLD ENOUGH TO READ ABOUT Africa, I have been fascinated by the Tuareg. For more than a thousand years they were the fierce, veiled, camel-riding, sword-wielding warlords of the Sahara until they were ruthlessly conquered in the late ninet

      18 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Storytelling Should Never Be Confused with Sociology: The Millions Interviews John Domini

      Oct 3, 2019

      John Domini’s new novel concludes his trilogy set in Naples after a fictional earthquake, engrossing readers in a gripping mystery. The post Storytelling Should Never Be Confused with Sociology: The Millions Interviews John Domini appeared first on T

      7 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Books

      Jan 23, 2023

      Books
      6 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Your Page

      Apr 27, 2022

      Jetting my way back through the clouds to coastal Victoria from Queensland following my father’s funeral, I opened the March edition of Country Style and took a deep breath. After a week of family tension and grief, ‘The Art Issue’, always a personal

      5 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Maybe It Won’t Be That Bad

      Dec 9, 2019

      Maybe It Won’t Be That Bad
      4 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Time To Return To The Hard Work Of Creating A Legacy For Future Generations

      Oct 21, 2020

      LAST month, South Africans commemorated the vibrant and diverse sounds, tastes and sights of our truly incredible country and province. By definition, heritage is a deceptively simple concept. It can be seen as valued objects and qualities such as hi

      4 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Riambel

    4/5

    11 ratings1 review

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 4/5
      Written with searing intensity and palpable emotions, the book is a simply stunning in the initial chapters where it blends the character's story with the history of Mauritius. I found myself sucked into the world, the dilemma and the pain of the character. The passages, though short, leave you emotionally shaken. Though, unfortunately, the latter half of the book, devoted to the matters of the heart involving Alexandre, felt underwhelming and somewhat of a copout. It almost felt like the author took the character towards a predetermined ending rather letting the character carve out a life story for herself. Thus, the tragic ending that the author goes for feels somewhat contrived. Having said that, the book is a must read for anyone wanting to dive into an intense, innovative and poignant story about a girl and the land she comes from.

    Book preview

    Riambel - Priya Hein

    The Indigo Press

    50 Albemarle Street

    London w1s 4bd

    www.theindigopress.com

    The Indigo Press Publishing Limited Reg. No. 10995574

    Registered Office: Wellesley House, Duke of Wellington Avenue

    Royal Arsenal, London se18 6ss

    COPYRIGHT © PRIYA HEIN 2023

    First published in Great Britain in 2023 by The Indigo Press

    Priya Hein asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988

    A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

    This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictionally and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organisations or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

    ISBN: 978-1-911648-49-9

    eBook ISBN: 978-1-911648-50-5

    All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publishers.

    The unedited and unpublished text of this book won the Prix Jean Fanchette 2021 from the Municipality of Beau Bassin-Rose Hill (Mauritius).

    Cover design © Luke Bird

    Art direction by House of Thought

    Front cover painting by Mila Gupta

    Author photo © Florence Guillemain

    Typesetting and eBook by Tetragon, London

    For Stefan, Ananya and Kian.

    Thank you for taking me home.

    Contents

    Author’s Note

    1

    2

    3

    4

    5

    6

    7

    8

    9

    10

    11

    12

    13

    14

    15

    16

    17

    18

    19

    20

    21

    22

    23

    24

    25

    26

    27

    28

    29

    30

    31

    32

    33

    34

    35

    36

    37

    38

    39

    40

    41

    42

    43

    44

    45

    46

    47

    48

    49

    50

    51

    52

    53

    54

    55

    56

    57

    58

    59

    60

    61

    62

    63

    64

    65

    66

    67

    Mauritian Writers and Artists Whose Work Appears in Riambel

    Acknowledgements

    ‌

    Author’s Note

    I have lived abroad for over thirty years as an immigrant. Quite often, I have been asked by the local majority to conform. But what does this word mean? The English word ‘conform’ means to comply with rules or standards – to be similar in form or type – to behave according to socially acceptable conventions. In French, se conformer means to obey and behave in accordance with pre-existing social and ideological conventions, to fit the mould.

    But my question is: who imposes these rules?

    I had been living and working in Germany for about two decades when George Floyd was murdered in May 2020. This brutal incident was the catalyst for Black Lives Matter protests all around the world. When I dared to speak about the racist incidents I had experienced as an immigrant (offensive comments, microaggressions, exclusion, condescension) to people I had regular interactions with, I was not taken seriously. I was told that what I had experienced was not racism, that I was being ‘oversensitive’ and that as an immigrant I had to accept this sort of behaviour. There was a clear lack of empathy, especially when they tried to silence and intimidate me. As a member of an ethnic minority, I was not allowed to ‘complain’ but was told that I should be ‘grateful’ and should conform.

    So I decided to let my pen and my heart speak for themselves. I sat down during a long weekend in June 2020 and wrote the first draft of Riambel in a practice that was intended to be non-conformist.

    Among one of the many possible origins of the word ‘sugar’ is the Sanskrit word ‘śarkarā’ meaning ‘gravel’ or ‘grit’. This is perhaps a more appropriate term, for this is the sensation that sugar left on the palate of those forced to cultivate it. Indeed, it is generally agreed that of all cash crops, sugar has caused the most suffering upon those peoples engaged in its production and there is no better illustration of this than the Mauritian experience. Few people in Mauritius, however, recognise the traumatic side of the history of ‘sugar’ or are conscious of the dislocation that sugar has caused to the millions of people all over the world who were forced to cultivate it. Sugar made the fortunes of some; but it also caused untold misery to many more. Yet we continue to accept representations of the history of sugar as a heroic venture that brought prosperity to the island as a whole. There is another side to the sugar ‘story’ that has not been narrated.

    Vijaya Teelock

    , Bitter Sugar

    Certes mes pas aveugles reconnaîtraient

    Les sables de Riambel

    Mes pieds apprivoiseraient la terre brûlée

    Et la mer Indienne saurait laver

    La poussière d’Europe

    Dans un unique sacrement d’aurore.

    Surely my blind steps would recognise

    The sands of Riambel

    My feet would tame the burned earth

    And the Indian sea could wash away

    The dust of Europe

    In its own rite of dawn.

    Jean Fanchette

    , from ‘Constat’

    (translated by Jeffrey Zuckerman)

    I’m the great-granddaughter of plantation rape. There’s a tinge to my slightly-light-ebony-blackness. I’m the daughter of Creole slaves and something far more sinister. Descendant of domestic servants and white masters who abused their workers. I have white male ancestry in me. Involuntarily. The whiteness I carry was not a choice. The greedy sugar barons took what they wanted – women and girls over whom they had extraordinary power – and then failed to claim their children. How can they deny their morbid past when we – the bastard children of colonialism – are here to remind them of their legacy? We carry the truth. As clear as daylight. The blue sky above is not a lie. We’re the living proof of a dark history that cannot be whitewashed.

    Look at me and tell me that history hasn’t tainted me.

    ‌

    1

    I’ve nurtured a special relationship with our Indian Ocean. Cradled to sleep by its motion. Wrapped in its vast blanket of blue. I am its creature. Its fluidity defines me. The sea pulses through my veins. Throbbing. Keeping me alive. Keeping me sane.

    My skin is impregnated with its salty smell. Tiny grains of sand are permanently trapped beneath my toenails. I tried to remove them, but then I gave up. What’s the point? Anyway, I like the idea that I’m carrying a little bit of the sea with me wherever I go.

    I’ve known the ocean all my life. Mama says I was practically born here on this beach. The sea is in me. I feel its deep currents running in my veins. Pulsing and throbbing. Constantly. At night I hear the waves murmuring, and rocking me to sleep the way a mother and a father ought to have. And when I finally drift off to sleep its lulling wakes me up – unless the neighbours are having one of their parties.

    It’s in this fishing village buried in the most southern part of the island that I was born and where I have spent all fifteen years of my life. My village is called Riambel: Ri-am-bel.

    Ri

    Am

    Bel

    It has a sing-song feel to it – something that implies summer and laughter. I once asked Mama if the name of our village comes from the words rire en belle. To laugh wholeheartedly. Without restraint.

    Rire? Laugh? What would I know? There’s nothing to laugh about in this life – is there? Now stop all that nonsense talk and help me with the chores before you go to school. I’ll be late for work. I can’t afford to lose my job. Who’s going

    Enjoying the preview?
    Page 1 of 1