In the Shadow of the Banyan

#878
Title: In the Shadow of the Banyan
Author: Vaddey Ratner
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Year: 2012
336 pages

Received as a giveaway from Goodreads First Reads. I don't think I've read a novel set in Cambodia yet, though I've read plenty of non-fiction, memoirs, travel books, and bird guides.

***

After reading: Ratner chose to fictionalize her lived experience rather than writing a straight memoir. While I imagine I'd appreciate her memoir as well, her decision means that she was able to change events for greater narrative coherence, symbolic resonance, and lyricism. In the Shadow of the Banyan is both more clearly structured and more literary than any of the memoirs I've read of the Khmer Rouge time. While the rawness and veracity of the memoirs holds the readers' attention, Ratner comes at the same content as fiction, which opens other possibilities to engage and hold the reader's attention. A strong effort, and I look forward to her future work.