In the Shadow of the Banyan

A Novel

By: Vaddey Ratner

Narrated by: Greta Lee

Length: 13 hrs and 19 mins

Publisher's summary

Told from the tender perspective of a young girl who comes of age amid the Cambodian killing fields, this searing first novel - based on the author’s personal story - has been hailed by Little Bee author Chris Cleave as “a masterpiece… utterly heartbreaking and impossibly beautiful.”

For seven-year-old Raami, the shattering end of childhood begins with the footsteps of her father returning home in the early dawn hours bringing details of the civil war that has overwhelmed the streets of Phnom Penh, Cambodia’s capital. Soon the family’s world of carefully guarded royal privilege is swept up in the chaos of revolution and forced exodus.

Over the next four years, as she endures the deaths of family members, starvation, and brutal forced labor, Raami clings to the only remaining vestige of childhood - the mythical legends and poems told to her by her father. In a climate of systematic violence where memory is sickness and justification for execution, Raami fights for her improbable survival. Displaying the author’s extraordinary gift for language, In the Shadow of the Banyan is testament to the transcendent power of narrative and a brilliantly wrought tale of human resilience.

©2012 Vaddey Ratner (P)2012 Simon & Schuster

Critic reviews

"This stunning memorial expresses not just the terrors ofthe Khmer Rouge but also the beauty of what was lost. A hauntingly powerful novel imbued with the richness of old Cambodian lore, the devastation of monumental loss, and the spirit of survival." ( Publishers Weekly)

"Vaddey Ratner's novel is ravishing in its ability to humanize and personalize the Cambodian genocide of the 1970s. She makes us look unflinchingly at the evil that humankind is capable of, but she gives us a child to hold our hand - an achingly believable child - so that we won't be overwhelmed. As we have passed from one century of horrors and been plunged into a new century giving us more of the same, In the Shadow of the Banyan is a truly important literary event." (Robert Olen Butler, author of A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain)

"Often lyrical, sometimes a bit ponderous: a painful,personal record of Cambodia's holocaust." ( Kirkus Reviews)

Superb, touching story enhanced by the narratrion

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Absolutely, I have done so to many of my friends and will continue to do so. It is a poignant story of hope and resilience, written in prose that is almost poetry.

Who was your favorite character and why?

Raami of course, followed by her mother.They are the central characters of the story around whom the whole tale revolves. Their fortitude and resilience are amazing!

What does Greta Lee bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

Narration by Greta Lee, with her oriental enunciation and superb voice modulations brought an entirely new emotional dimension to the story, which the readers of print or Kindle copy will surely miss. Her voice is soothing and the narration speed is perfect!!

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

I wish I could have done that, but it is not possible with all else going on.

Any additional comments?

Vaddey Ratners prose is peotry, that was brought to life by Grta Ratner's narration.I had another angle on this book: I have spent two 3-weeks stints on a teaching assignment in Phnom Penh and hence, I got to know Cambodia and its people far better than a casual tourist would. Further, being of Indian origin, my deeper study of links of the Cambodian religion and culture with that of India as well as my delving into history of Cambodia including the details of Khmer Rogue regime, added a further dimension to my appreciation of the story.

While this familiarity enhanced my enjoyment, the book will touch anyone with a heart!

Lest We Forget

This novel relates a story that must be told!! Lest we forget! As with the Holocaust we must hold up a mirror of our inhumanity to ourselves. These stories are told in past history, in the present, and are yet to be written in the future. Alas, our species is deeply flawed! God have mercy!

Powerful story that happened in my life time....

Would you listen to In the Shadow of the Banyan again? Why?

This is a powerful story about a young girl and her family that were impacted by the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia. The story, although fiction, is a version of a young girls experience in a war torn world where little makes sense. The author has a beautiful way of putting words together to paint pictures in your mind and find poetry in the phrase. Very good listen! I would recommend this to anyone who wants to look at a perspective of Cambodian history that no one wants to relive. So the story is sad... but oh so well written.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

I both laughed and cried while listening to this book. I think the author did an amazing job of looking at devastation in human existence and then finding ways to find some love/hope and sometimes even beauty in awfulness.

Beautiful story of survival perseverance

This was an amazing and beautifully written story in which the author shares her first hand experience of her life in Cambodia. The descriptions and imagery are outstanding and the story of hardship, struggle and love will stay with me for years. I definitely recommend this book

Heartbreakingly beautiful

If you are having doubts on reading this book, don’t. Everything from the story, the writing style, the narration was perfect. This story was so heartbreaking but it was hands down one of the best books I have ever read/listened to. I wanted to reach through the pages of this book and scoop the little girl (main character) up and protect her from the evils of this world. My heart broke for not only her but all the real people that suffered through this atrocity. Beautifully written and beautifully narrated.

Did not care for the narration

The narrators overly sweet voice distracted from the tragic but gripping material. Some background on Cambodian history leading up to the revolution might have also better set the story's events.

Fantastic!

This is the story of the effects of war on a 5 year old child. She was a princess in Cambodia when the Revolutionaries started a war against the upper classes, which included anyone educated enough to read or write This was during the Vietnam war. The suffering of the people was terrible. Thousands died in Cambodia. Rami (sp?) was one of the few survivors of her family. Couldn't stop listening.

A Different Perspective

What did you like best about In the Shadow of the Banyan? What did you like least?

The story is told by a young princess of Cambodia which gives it a different perspective of the Cambodian "Killing Fields." It is a tribute to survival and has some compelling characters, but it gets lost in poetic wanderings.

What do you think your next listen will be?

Finding Nouf

Which character – as performed by Greta Lee – was your favorite?

The narrator

If this book were a movie would you go see it?

Maybe but I doubt it would be made into a movie without being changed considerably.

Beautifully written although heartbreaking

This book gives up a glance into the atrocities of the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia and the resilience of one little girl is inspiring. For historical fiction lovers, this is for you! I have learned about this history in our world, one that has not been told much like the others. It was a great learning opportunity and at the same time, a beautiful tale with an excellent prose. Highly recommend!

A beautifully performed heart-wrenching story

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

I would highly recommend this book. It is beautifully written and tells a story about a place (Cambodia) and a time, the violent era of the 1970's, with which I was almost totally unfamiliar. Through the story I learned about both and suffered with the very true to life characters

What was one of the most memorable moments of In the Shadow of the Banyan?

I have tried to think how to answer this question without giving away important parts of the book, and feel that I cannot. Instead, I will say that what was memorable for me was the way in which a very young child was forced to mature and take responsibility at way too early an age.

Which character – as performed by Greta Lee – was your favorite?

The main character, a 7 year old girl called Rami.

Any additional comments?

At times I felt that Rami was actually too mature for her age, but the horrors of senseless cruelty and depravation can be very maturing factors in one's life. Even had she been twice her age at the onset of the book, the story would have been no less dramatic and touching.