Sheba Jose was born and educated in south India and knows well the terrain and ethos of the land that she writes about in this book. She is equally familiar with the quite different physical and cultural landscape of north India, where she has lived for close to two decades. She has a bachelor's degree in science and a master's in English literature. She currently resides in Australia.
A bustling city. A farmstead in a verdant village. A fugitive. A scoundrel. And an unfolding series of events seen through the eyes of a child.
This gritty novel, while offering the reader delightful glimpses of daily life in the two regions of southern India that form its setting, also brings them face to face with the less savoury and disturbing aspects of the human condition. The mostly lovable characters, who are at the mercy of a universe that does not discriminate between good and evil, cannot take anything for granted. Whether man, beast or bird, each must deal with their destiny according to their own nature and instincts. In the end, they find that they have only themselves, and their relationships with each other, to fall back on.
Poignant and perceptive, Chamor will haunt you for a long time.
Sheba Jose's Chamor is both delicate and disturbing, an acutely observed evocation of a young girl's universe on a family plantation in Kerala. In the intricacy of relationships-with family, servants and the natural world-is contained the heartbreak of change. In vividly drawn scenes and fluent dialogue, the novel captures the transition from the simple pleasures of childhood to the pain of a lost paradiseAn engaging tale of innocence, love and humanity set in the enchanted garden of childhood. Sheba Jose tells her story of a remembered life in charming south Indian locales with passion and convictionSheba Jose tells the story of Chamor in such vivid and nuanced detail that it becomes, for the reader, a shared experience-as they subconsciously amalgamate memories evoked from their own past with events that affect and shape the characters that emerge from the author's mind. Expectations, values and emotions form the core of relationships. Chamor is an engrossing rendition of human nature and of the significant role of chance in all our lives. Storytelling at its best! Highly recommended
