Ayesha Inoon's second novel, The Sisters of Serendib, begins on a boat in the open ocean. After a Tamil militant organization forces seven-year-old Janu and her family to leave their home in Jaffna, Sri Lanka's Northern Province, they flee across the Indian Ocean to Australia seeking safety. To Janu, the central character, the journey seems endless.
When their mother dies aboard, Janu and her two younger sisters are separated, each informally adopted by different adults on the boat. Although the Sri Lankan civil war triggers the plot, the novel is set primarily in Australia, focusing on the personal lives of Janu and her sisters and the wider Sri Lankan community.
The Sisters' Stories
Maryam, the youngest, has always known she was adopted, 'chosen' and loved. 'Too little to know what she had lost and what she had gained,' as a baby she is 'the luckiest of the three.' But as an adult, she struggles in a controlling marriage and finds it hard to express herself.
Samar, the middle child, believes she is the biological daughter of Huda, the young mother who adopted her. Though Huda speaks Tamil with her, teaches her traditional spices, and dresses her in Sri Lankan fashion, Samar often feels like the black sheep. Still, she knows she is loved.
Janu, the eldest, is eight when she arrives in Australia—old enough to remember her former life and family. She is adopted by a man with no family, no children, and a different religious background. At his hands, Janu endures 18 years of sexual abuse.
Themes of Hope and Healing
Told through alternating perspectives of Janu, Samar, Maryam, and Huda, the story explores what happens after Janu finds freedom. As their lives unfold, the sisters channel pain into unique strengths and eventually reunite. Maryam has a gift for words, Samar finds expression through dance, and Janu possesses a special ability to see the past and future.
Drawn to the south coast of New South Wales, Janu opens a seaside shop called 'Serendib'—the ancient Persian name for Sri Lanka—where she hopes people will find love and healing, and perhaps where she can find her sisters.
Though themes are dark, the novel rarely details the finer points. 'Where there was darkness, [Janu] also saw light… she tried to balance those, to always give hope,' Inoon writes. The book follows this path, making for an uplifting story but leaving confronting scenes underexplored. Extreme violence, including child sexual assault, domestic violence, and war trauma, are glossed over for saccharine descriptions of Janu's shop and romance, undermining emotional significance. This is not a book for readers seeking deep political or historical engagement; it is about finding hope, not the past.
Character and Culture
The characters are many and varied, and as the sisters draw together, the novel shows how gender and culture shape experiences of migration, family, and belonging. Men loom large—some violent, some controlling, some loving—but the focus is on three women carving out lives in available spaces and finding safety in each other. Inoon excels at exploring social ties of obligation, culture, and power.
While the treatment of suffering can feel glib, the optimism is sincere and moving. The Sisters of Serendib may not satisfy readers wanting nuanced exploration of war or trauma, but it succeeds as a compassionate story of community and new life.
The Sisters of Serendib by Ayesha Inoon is out now (HarperCollins; $32.99).
