Ayah: A Tale of Survival, Love and Revenge Paperback – 23 Sept. 2016

Ayah is the incredible story of a little-known figure in history - the Indian ayah. Thushani Weerasekera takes her readers on Jemima's compelling, emotional and often scary journey from being an ayah in India to surviving the underbelly of Victorian London; two very different places. I found myself drawn in from page one and my heart raced throughout each chapter in suspense; anxious to find out what would become of our heroine.Thushani Weerasekera's debut novel is without a doubt one of the best novels I have ever read; she writes beautifully and each sentence sounds like a poem. I really believe she is an author to watch out for and could not recommend this novel enough.

Really evocative and well researched. I loved the descriptions of Victorian India and then London. The characters and details are superbly observed. Have knocked one star off as the ending seems a little bit rushed in terms of giving it a happy Mills and Boon type finale. Trying not to put in spoilers but the book would have been more plausible and bittersweet if everyone knew their place according to social and cultural conventions of the time, following the theme of the rest if the book. The ending was too neat and modern.

I enjoyed Ayah. It was an easy read with some interesting characters and its fair share of twists and turns. I look forward to hearing more from Thushani Weerasekera. The only downside was that I seem to have purchased one of the copies that apparently suffered from a software glitch that was referred to in the author's Facebook post on the subject. The editing was very uneven and spoilt my enjoyment of the book as a whole. I would be interested to see how Amazon is going to rectify this and ensure that it does not happen again.

This book was an enjoyable read and very well-written. The writer keeps you intrigued and you feel inclined to know what happens next after reading each and every chapter. The unpredictable and unexpected happens in some chapters and you can be kept glued to reading the book as you want to know what happens next. Each chapter is a manageable read not taking up too much of your time. Looking forward to reading future books written by this talented author.

The story is good and is written well , lots of twists so this made a good read.I liked that it did not cover up what people would have thought about relationships like this back in that time

I read a lot of books set wholly or partially in India and if one is available as a good Kindle offer, I'm likely to snap it up. I was very familiar with the role of the ayah but quite disappointed that so little of this book actually took place in India. Whilst the book starts well and the sea voyage from Calcutta to London was very colourful, everything seemed to fall apart once Jemima and her British employer's family reached 'home'.When Jemima's mistress finds out that her husband has been unfaithful with an Indian woman back in Calcutta, she takes out her frustration on her ayah. Jemima is thrown out and sent to a hostel for foreign women, where she dreams of raising the money to get her passage back home.The whole miserable Victorian London plot is just too miserable, too cut-rate Dickensian to be believable. Equally the ridiculous coincidences are too many and too unbelievable. That a lone Indian woman in a city the size of London can 'bump into' each of the very few people she knows in the city is beyond belief.This book swings from dirt, exploitation and debauchery to Mills & Boon soppiness, barely pausing to draw breath along the way. There's a half decent story between its pages but the book is just too extreme in its highs and lows and too convenient in its ludicrous coincidences. It took me a long time to finish because reading it felt like a chore. I'm sure the author can do better and I hope they won't be put off by my negativity.

Beautiful and moving story. Thushani manages to bring so much depth to the characters and evokes the sounds, smells and sights of all the various places withing this wonderful tale. So enjoyed this, to the extent that I started taking the bus rather than the tube so my journey was longer in order to read more! Definitely opens the way for a sequel and would be an amazing television epic at the very least or a movie at very best! A very definite 5 stars at the very least!

Reading Ayah was easy, enjoyable, and an education. The author has a wonderful command of the English language and has penned a most beautifully descriptive tale which I found gripping, enlightening and satisfying. I was particularly impressed by the structure of the book, with each chapter almost reading like an 'episode'. Ayah would play out wonderfully on screen. Many congratulations to Thushani Weerasekera on an accomplished debut novel.