Set against the last days of the British rule on the island of Sri Lanka, cousins Mano and Leela are bound together in an arranged marriage. Both are deeply distraught over this age-old tradition, yet still in an effort to please their families and not yet prepared to defy custom, Mano and Leela marry. Mano chronicles the events surrounding their wedding and their marriage, which play out in an up country village and at a nearby British run tea estate. The drama of their marriage intensifies amid the political chaos that surrounds the final days of the colonial rule.

Their heartbreaking story is told in a narrative style rich in moods and imagery, as much as psychological insight. Leela struggles to live up to her new role as a wife, and Mano faces every day with a deeply heavy heart as husband to a woman he did not choose. Unable to find love or intimacy, Leela and Mano drift into separate worlds. Just as the fate of the island seems to teeter in precarious balance, likewise, the fate of young Mano and Leela's lives hangs by a fraying thread.

"It's a pleasure to find and read such a treasure!"
P. McCall. Queen Ann Avenue Books
Seattle, Washington.

"I rarely read a book more than once, but I've read Burning Woman over and over again to savor the beauty and emotional intensity that I can't get enough of..."
K. Baker
San Diego, CA

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