Butterfly in the Wind
Peepal Tree, 1990
Lakshmi Persaud’s first novel, Butterfly in the Wind, is the story of Kamla, a young girl growing up in 1940s Trinidad.
In this sensitive work of fictionalised auto-biography Kamla's voice is freed to give a richly inward picture of her life, from the vivid sensory impressions of early childhood to the developing sensibility of a young woman at the crossroads of diverse social, cultural and religious influences.
"This unassuming and sweet-natured book is above all a tremendous celebration of life and its simple pleasures"
The Sunday Times
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Sastra
Peepal Tree, 1993
Set in Trinidad in the 1950s, Sastra is a tender love story.
At birth, Sastra is offered two possible karmas, one of prosperous security if she keeps to the well-tried path, the other of mixed joy and misery if she should attempt to 'fly'. Sastra has to choose between the traditional, collective Hindu society of her parents and the world of individual destinies and responsibilities to which her generation is increasingly drawn.
"This is a love story of an unusual, even rare beauty."
Sunday Gleaner
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For the Love of My Name
Peepal Tree, 2000
Torn between confession and self-justification, President for Life, Robert Augustus Devonish writes his memoirs as his country falls apart around him; Kamila prepares for a workers' last stand against his regime; Vasu sets off to investigate the rumours of untold horrors in a commune deep in the interior; and Marguerite Devonish has to decide between loyalty to family or country in bringing an end to her brother's crimes.
"Honest, Fearless and also generous, this is the book for the millennium, one to shake comfortable assumptions of rectitude into recognition of the abyss into which some of us may fall while others fail to care. I couldn’t put it down. It is also, in a sense a book which marks the maturing of Caribbean Literature"
Pamela Beshoff - The Weekly Gleaner
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Raise the Lanterns High
Black Amber, 2004
Two chance encounters come close to shattering Vasti's sanity. On a hot afternoon in a sugar-cane field in Trinidad she witnesses a violent rape, and twelve years later she learns that the rapist is her husband-to-be. How can she escape from this situation without bringing disgrace to her gentle, loving family?
"Powerful and poetic"
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Time Out
Daughters of Empire
Peepal Tree, 2012
Daughters of Empire is a sweeping family saga, a moving portrayal of migration and the challenges it presents. This is unlike any other novel of the Asian experience in Britain. The prejudices a middle class family face are insidious and subtle. Governments urge immigrants to 'assimilate' but when you've mastered the language and attended the best British universities, it may still be impossible to truly fit in.
"Persaud could be partially likened to a Caribbean Jane Austen, underscoring the deepest of issues with a light, graceful hand."
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Trinidad Guardian