liveebyarchitecture

Touching Earth wasn’t quite what I’d expected yet I wasn’t disappointed. I did, however, find certain aspects of it deeply disturbing. But for that, I have only myself to blame. (At the beginning of the story, the author had warned me – as indeed she does every reader – that I was about to enter “a dreadfully sordid world”. And that, I most certainly did.) In fact, the book has been lying on my shelf for more than a year until I finally lent the book to Nadia and she came back with great comments.

The book introduces a large set of characters, from totally different backgrounds, culture, lifestyle and hometown. But they all have one thing in common - they were ‘broken’ people whose lives have been scarred by the harsh reality of materialism, prostitution and drug addiction. These people meet each other in London and the magical story (which slowly becomes darker and destructive) begins…

In this beautifully-written story, each character is complex and attractive, and deeply flawed, which adds to rather than subtracts from their attractiveness. Each main character takes its turn to speak, where they tell of their feelings and perspectives as the story unfolds.

Touching Earth is the second book by Malaysian-born author Rani Manicka. I’d say she is a storyteller of quite exceptional talent. Although the characters were introduced separately, she links all of them up beautifully with her exotic story. The novel is undoubtedly a dark story, but its worth a read.

I have not read her first book (Rice Mother) though. Perhaps i will get the book some time soon. But if any of u have read it, please let me know if it’s worth a buy.

This entry was posted on Saturday, July 1st, 2006 at 10:33 pm and is filed under Books. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.