Tamarin Bay, Mauritius, is a travel agent’s paradise: a tropical ocean, fishermen unloading their daily catch, children building sandcastles, surfers riding giant waves.
But just along the shoreline is the beach of La Preneuse, the taker of souls. The island is haunted with tragedy and the remnants of colonial rule.
But it is also home, where Anita Ram longs to be following the collapse of her marriage. After enduring a shocking betrayal and the sexism and racism of a cold Britain in the early twenty-first century, she finds comfort in simple things; her mother’s cooking, her childhood bedroom, and a handsome architect.
Will these be enough for Anita to find happiness again, or will the ghosts of her past consume her?
Following the international success of her debut Riambel, Hein’s heart-wrenching new novel reveals the violence and beauty inherent in her native Mauritius.
Praise
‘A small book about big feelings . . . it carries the weight of what women struggle to survive.’
— Brittle Paper
‘[a] vivid examination of love, generational trauma and how the impact of slavery still haunts Mauritian lives.’
— National Geographic Traveller
‘A beautiful, melancholy story . . . A tale of longing and regret, of missed chances, of stillborn dreams.’
— Ananda Devi, author of Eve Out of Her Ruins
‘The narrative of ‘some exotic girl from a faraway island’ could have easily fallen into cliché in the hands of a lesser writer. But in Tamarin, Priya Hein tells the story with such bravery, candor, and evocative detail that I often mistook it for a true account. Her Mauritius mirrors my Trinidad in ways that felt both familiar and thrilling to explore. Women everywhere will see themselves—their deepest loves and betrayals, and their most delicate relationships—reflected in these pages.’
— Celeste Mohammed, author of Ever Since We Small and Pleasantview, winner of the OCM Bocas Prize 2022
‘There are books whose characters haunt you long after you’ve turned the last page. Anita Ram gets under your skin without you even realizing it. Tamarin is one of those books where even melancholy knows how to be coquettish. Priya Hein is a grain of sand that the Indian Ocean cannot ignore.’
— Ari Gautier, author of Lakshmi’s Secret Diary
‘Tamarin is a lush, gorgeous novel. Priya Hein’s prose is transportive. It is impossible not to feel the sand, smell the incense, taste the khir. But beneath the sensory richness lies an achingly melancholic story of loss, betrayal, and the quiet, restorative power of coming back home.’
— James Roseman, author of Placeholders
