Nectar in a Sieve - Couverture souple

Work without hope draws nectar in a sieve, And hope without an object cannot live. Markandaya's first published novel, Nectar in a Sieve, was a bestseller and cited as an American Library Association Notable Book in 1955 Nectar in a Sieve, set in India during a period of intense urban development, is a fictional history of a marriage between Rukmani, youngest daughter of a village headman, and Nathan, a tenant farmer. Rukmani tells the story in the first person, from her arranged marriage to Nathan at the age of twelve to his death many years later. Rukmani and Nathan love each other and their marriage begins in relative peace and plenty; however, a large tannery is built in the neighboring village and begins insidiously destroying their lives. As the tannery grows larger and more prosperous, Rukmani and Nathan struggle to feed their children and to pay the rent on the land that gives them life. Although matters continue to worsen, they quietly resign themselves to ever-increasing hardships—flood, famine, even death—and cling to their hopes for a better future.

“Comparable in many ways to Cry, The Beloved Country...if anything...better.”—Saturday Evening Post

“Nectar in a Sieve has a wonderful, quiet authority...without reticence or excess.”—Donald Barr, The New York Times
 
“A novel to retain in your heart.”—Milwaukee Journal

“Very moving.”—Harper’s Magazine

“An elemental book. It has something better than power, the truth of distilled experience.”—New York Herald Tribune
 
“Unique in poetic beauty, in classically restrained and controlled tragedy.”—Dorothy Canfield Fisher, noted author and critic
 
“A superb job in telling her story.”—The Christian Science Monitor