The Fertile Earth, Ruthvika Rao
The Fertile Earth, Ruthvika Rao
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The Fertile Earth
A Novel

Author: Ruthvika Rao

Narrator: Sneha Mathan

Unabridged: 14 hr 53 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 08/13/2024


Synopsis

"Sneha Mathan's narration immerses listeners...through her nuanced performance, the themes of love, defiance, and accountability resonate deeply, enhancing this compelling exploration of human relationships and social transformation.."—AudioFile

An unforgettable story of love and resistance surrounding two young people born across social lines, set against a tumultuous political landscape in India.

Vijaya and Sree are the daughters of the Deshmukhs of Irumi. Hailing from a lineage of ancestral aristocrats, their family’s social status and power over villagers on their land is absolute. Krishna and Ranga, brothers, are the sons of a widowed servant in the Deshmukh household.

When Vijaya and Krishna meet, they forge an intense bond that is beautiful and dangerous. But after an innocent attempt to hunt down a man-eating tiger in the jungle goes wrong, what happens between the two of them is disastrous, the consequences reverberating through their lives into young adulthood.

Years later, when violent uprisings rip across the countryside and the Marxist, ultra-left Naxalite movement arrives in Irumi, Vijaya and Krishna are forced to navigate the insurmountable differences of land ownership and class warfare in a country that is burning from the inside out—while being irresistibly drawn back to each other, their childhood bond now full of possibilities neither of them are willing to admit.

The Fertile Earth is a vast, ambitious debut that is equal parts historical, political, and human, with the enduring ties of love and family loyalty at its heart. Who can be loved? What are the costs of transgressions? How can justice be measured, and who will be alive to bear witness?

A Macmillan Audio production from Flatiron Books.

About Ruthvika Rao

Ruthvika Rao is from Hyderabad, India. She is the author of The Fertile Earth, which was a finalist for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize, the Chautauqua prize, and longlisted for the Dylan Thomas prize. She is a graduate of the Iowa Writers' workshop and lives in Michigan.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Ash on October 09, 2024

I'm just amazed that I liked the hell out of this book knowing that I was completely unaware about its existence and the plot. It's one of those books that just fell into my lap out of the blue. Quite weirdly, it just took milliseconds of glance through my Google suggestions to see the title of this......more

Goodreads review by Tenisha on January 23, 2024

I savored this novel. The imagery was insane. At times there was almost too much detail and it took away from the moment. I enjoyed the way the story unfolded. Immediately after being introduced to the village of Irumi, BAM, heads hanging on pikes! It was a great beginning. What follows are the even......more

Goodreads review by Deanna on June 30, 2024

One of the best reads of the year for me so far. I am a person who likes more conversation or dialogue and less description or discussion but the writers detailed storytelling transported me to a time and place I could have never imagined. To experience a land and culture with such deep rituals, bel......more

Goodreads review by Molly on January 28, 2025

The Fertile Earth is an absolutely beautiful but gut wrenching novel, exploring the complex political landscape of India in the late 1900s, with characters that offer a number of intricate perspectives throughout the novel. With various depictions of love, anger, betrayal, violence, morality, loyalt......more

Goodreads review by Meg on August 13, 2024

The Fertile Earth by Ruthvika Rao Narrated by Sneha Mathan Genre: historical fiction Telangana, India, 1955-1970 This was a gorgeous, difficult read. Vijaya is the least beloved daughter. She'll never be as perfect as her younger sister Sree. Daughters of prominent landowners in Irumi, India in the latte......more


Quotes

"What a marvelous writer Ruthvika is. Her characters are so vivid and passionate, the stakes are so high and the history so complicated. The Fertile Earth is a compulsively readable novel." —Margot Livesey, New York Times bestselling author of The Flight of Gemma Hardy

"The Fertile Earth is the kind of novel that you find yourself wanting a friend to read alongside you, to share in the beauty, tragedy, triumph and heartbreak of the world brought to life within its pages. Ruthvika Rao has crafted an astonishing, intelligent epic set during the early decades of post-Independence India, a story filled with moral complexity, intertwined fates, awakenings and romance. Reading The Fertile Earth it's clear that Rao is not only a sophisticated storyteller but an impressive prose stylist—her sentences sing. This is a novel you will not be able to forget." —Angela Flournoy, author of The Turner House, finalist for the National Book Award

"From its unforgettable opening pages, The Fertile Earth held me spellbound. At its heart is a transgressive love story that dares to bloom in a world of caste-based violence, vengeance, and political transformation. Ruthvika Rao is a fearless writer, and her debut is nothing short of dazzling." —Tania James, author of Loot, longlisted for the National Book Award

"What a rich, deeply memorable novel. The Fertile Earth beautifully explores loyalty and love, violence and politics and ideology, promises and returns and the arbitrariness of origin—not to mention the inextricable histories of family and nation. This is an inspired, gorgeous book, and Ruthvika Rao’s storytelling has a confident, compassionate intelligence—I’d follow her bright voice anywhere." —Natalie Bakopoulos, author of Scorpionfish

"Bold, sensual, and captivating, The Fertile Earth pits love against memory, love against class, love against politics, love against time, love against all. Read it, and find out which one wins." —Shobha Rao, author of Girls Burn Brighter, longlisted for the 2018 Center for Fiction First Novel Prize