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  • Burnt Sugar

  • By: Avni Doshi
  • Narrated by: Vineeta Rishi
  • Length: 7 hrs and 29 mins
  • 3.5 out of 5 stars (219 ratings)
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Burnt Sugar cover art

Burnt Sugar

By: Avni Doshi
Narrated by: Vineeta Rishi
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Summary

SHORTLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE 2020: A searing, compulsively readable story of mothers and daughters, memory and madness, love and betrayal 

PICKED AS A BOOK OF THE YEAR 2020 BY the Guardian, Economist, Spectator and more... 

In her youth, Tara was wild. She abandoned her arranged marriage to join an ashram, took a hapless artist for a lover, rebelled against every social expectation of a good Indian woman - all with her young child in tow. Years on, she is an old woman with a fading memory, mixing up her maid's wages and leaving the gas on all night, and her grown-up daughter is faced with the task of caring for a mother who never seemed to care for her.

This is a poisoned love story. But not between lovers - between mother and daughter. Sharp as a blade and laced with caustic wit, Burnt Sugar gradually untangles the knot of memory and myth that bind two women together, revealing the truth that lies beneath.

©2020 Avni Doshi (P)2020 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

"Taut, unsettling, ferocious." (Fatima Bhutto, author of The Runaways)

"Acerbic, full of wit and cool intelligence - every sentence is a coiled spring and each psychological portrait burns itself into the mind. I couldn't put it down." (Olivia Sudjic, author of Exposure and Sympathy)

"Crystalline, surgical, compulsively readable. An examination of toxic relationships and the ties that bind us." (Sharlene Teo, author of Ponti)

What listeners say about Burnt Sugar

Average customer ratings
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Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

I didn't enjoy it

I struggled to listen to this book but I carried on until the end hoping it would get better. It did not.
Many times I fell asleep and had to go back and listen to chapters again.
I did not feel a connection with any of the characters, including the woman telling the story. The book was about this woman and her mother, but all the other key relationships and events in her life were glossed over. Then the book suddenly ended, with no real climax or conclusion. To be honest this was both a relief and a disappointment.
The narration was OK, but I did have to slow it down a bit as I felt it was slightly too fast at its original speed.

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7 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

ok

I couldn't really get into this book I am surprised it is shortlisted for the Booker ,for me there was little in it that was orginal .

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4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

breathtaking

What a beautiful and painful journey . as an Indian women I found it relatable and so poignant. I can't recommend it enough ❤

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Disappointing

I’m not sure what to say about this one. It has been nominated for various prestigious book prizes but I cannot fathom why. It is a dull, plodding story about a toxic mother-daughter relationship, toxic marriages, failing careers, alternative lifestyles and the effects of dementia on the sufferer and their carers. It is hard to think of anything positive about this book.

I kept going with the story, even though it was lacklustre and hard to engage with. I nearly gave up but kept hoping that something would happen to grab my attention; it didn’t. My main problem was that every character had fatal character flaws; they were selfish, unreliable, unlikeable with barely a redeeming feature between them.

The narration was not brilliant; the narrator’s voice was a bit too bland, lacking in contrast and variety.

Sorry I couldn’t give it a better review.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

flat from start the finish

has high hopes for this book but the story was flat, the narrators attempts at an American accent and the ability to perform multiple characters we awkward and cringworthy and irritating

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

Unsure of the point

I really struggled to finish this book. The story was upsetting and seemed pointless. No resolution and no character development. The only redeeming factor was the narration, which was pleasant.

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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

Disappointing

Couldn’t bring myself to finish this. Not at all captivating with a story that’s hard to follow

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Interesting description

I found the authors language quite interesting and poetic .. I loved her description of characters and dissection of situations
I thought narration was somewhat nervous

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

A poetic book beautifully performed

This is a meditation on memory it's function and also just through an accident of Birth family can have the potential to destroy you from the inside out rather than nurture.

This book is set in semi rural India and tells the story of a dysfunctional mother daughter relationship and how a diagnosis of dementia shifts the dynamic.

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  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

Where's the interest?

I was bored all the way through. Only finished it hoping for something interesting to happen.

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