{
  "type": "book",
  "site": {
    "name": "The Book Quiver",
    "language": "en-US",
    "url": "https://www.bookquiver.com"
  },
  "formats": "Every page has two versions with the same data: JSON (the page address + .json) and markdown (the page address + .md). Append .json or .md to any `url` in this document.",
  "title": "Cinnamon Gardens",
  "subtitle": null,
  "slug": "cinnamon-gardens",
  "url": "https://www.bookquiver.com/shyam-selvadurai/cinnamon-gardens",
  "json": "https://www.bookquiver.com/shyam-selvadurai/cinnamon-gardens.json",
  "markdown": "https://www.bookquiver.com/shyam-selvadurai/cinnamon-gardens.md",
  "authors": [
    {
      "name": "Shyam Selvadurai",
      "slug": "shyam-selvadurai",
      "url": "https://www.bookquiver.com/shyam-selvadurai"
    }
  ],
  "language": "en_GB",
  "original_title": null,
  "original_language": null,
  "first_published": "2011-01-11",
  "genres": [
    {
      "code": "FBA",
      "heading": "Modern and contemporary fiction: literary and general"
    },
    {
      "code": "FV",
      "heading": "Historical fiction"
    }
  ],
  "series": [],
  "cover": "https://quivercdn.com/covers/transworld-digital/shyam-selvadurai/cinnamon-gardens_978-14-0901-093-7-c791fbf2.webp?v=2026-10-13%2018%3A28%3A25",
  "description": "Selvadurai has captured horrifyingly well the airlessness of a society in which only a few are truly able to breathe, and deeply' Mary Loudon, The Times In Shyam Selvadurai's masterful second novel, set in repressive and complex 1920s Ceylon, the Cinnamon Gardens is a residential enclave of wealthy Ceylonese. Among them is Annalukshmi, an independent and high-spirited young teacher intent on thwarting her parents' plans to arrange her marriage. In a parallel narrative, her uncle, Balendran Navaratnam, respectably married but secretly homosexual, has his life disrupted by the arrival in Ceylon of Richard, a lover from long ago. 'Richly rewarding . . . this is, in many ways, an old-fashioned novel, brimming with old-fashioned virtues. The characters and setting are established in a measured, finely judged manner, allowing us to feel at home with them. Annalukshmi's Jane Austen-ish domestic life -- anxious mother, bossy aunt, catty sisters, endless talk of prospective husbands -- is brought to life with glancing humour. Not least of the novel's virtues is the way he seems to conjure up a whole social panorama. With its vivid evocation of time and place, its wise characterisation, its involving emotional dramas, this is a novel that deserves, and will surely gain, a wide readership' Adam Lively, Sunday Times 'Subtle and deeply humane . . . a fine novel that is both delicately written and very, very wise . . . Selvadurai has established himself firmly as an important chronicler of the complexities of social and cultural difference' Books in Canada 'This is a distinctive voice and the author is a talent to be reckoned with' Telegraph, India",
  "editions": [
    {
      "title": "Cinnamon Gardens",
      "subtitle": null,
      "url": "https://www.bookquiver.com/shyam-selvadurai/cinnamon-gardens/9781409010937",
      "publisher": "Transworld Digital",
      "translators": [],
      "medium": "ebook",
      "duration_seconds": null,
      "narrators": [],
      "illustrators": [],
      "cover_artists": [],
      "isbn": "978-14-0901-093-7",
      "pages": null,
      "published": "2011-01-11",
      "language": "en_GB",
      "cover": "https://quivercdn.com/covers/transworld-digital/shyam-selvadurai/cinnamon-gardens_978-14-0901-093-7-c791fbf2.webp?v=2026-10-13%2018%3A28%3A25"
    }
  ],
  "other_languages": [],
  "characters": [],
  "chapters": []
}