Evening Is The Whole Day
SynopsisPlot
Set in Malaysia, this spellbinding and already internationally acclaimed debut introduces us to the prosperous Rajasekharan family as its closely guarded secrets are slowly peeled away. When Chellam, the family’s rubber-plantation-bred servant girl, is dismissed for unnamed crimes, her banishment is the latest in a series of recent, precipitous losses that have shaken six-year-old Aasha’s life. A few short weeks before, Aasha’s grandmother Paati passed away under mysterious circumstances and her older sister, Uma, departed for Columbia University—leaving Aasha alone to cope with her mostly absent father, her bitter mother, and her imperturbable older brother.
Story
About this book
Evening Is the Whole Day is Preeta Samarasan's debut novel, set in Malaysia and centered on the Rajasekharan family, a prosperous household whose stability conceals fractures. It opens with the dismissal of Chellam, a servant raised on a rubber plantation, sent away for offenses the family never names. For six-year-old Aasha, this follows other losses: her grandmother Paati's death under unclear circumstances, and her sister Uma's departure for Columbia University.
Aasha is left in a household defined by absences and silences. Her father is rarely present, her mother bitter, and her older brother hard to reach. The novel works through the family's guarded secrets, showing what sits beneath a composed surface. Samarasan draws on Malaysia's multiethnic landscape, touching on class divisions, the legacy of plantation labour, and tensions within a family shaped by expectations it cannot openly discuss.
The narrative structure shifts across time and perspective, assembling the family's history in layered pieces rather than strict chronological order. Samarasan's approach allows each character's version of events to stand alongside the others, building a picture of domestic life where what remains unspoken carries real consequence.
