Book

In the Shadow of the Banyan

In the Shadow of the Banyan (2012) is the first novel by Vaddey Ratner, about a young girl's survival under the Khmer Rouge.[1] It is closely based on her own family's experience in Cambodia during the genocide.[1]

Cover with a painted banyan tree and a woman and child in red under it.
Cover of In the Shadow of the Banyan (2013).

About the book

The story opens in Phnom Penh in April 1975, as the Khmer Rouge take power.[2] Seven-year-old Raami, who had polio in childhood, lives in a royal household with her mother, her baby sister Radana and their servants.[1] Her father is a minor prince and a poet who writes and recites his own poems.[1][2]

The new regime, which the novel calls the Organization, orders the family out of Phnom Penh.[1][2] Raami's father is identified by his royal background and taken away, and is never seen again.[1] Raami and her mother are sent from one rural community to another, with little food and backbreaking work.[1] Radana dies of malaria in the monsoon season, and Raami blames herself.[1] Over four years, Raami keeps her father's poems and the old myths and folk tales alive in her memory.[1][2] The novel traces the Khmer Rouge years to the regime's fall.[2]

Background

Names are changed and some events combined, but Ratner kept her father's name to honor him, and her author's note states that the novel stays close to her memories.[1]

Publication and editions

Simon & Schuster published the novel on July 31, 2012.[1]

  • 2012 hardcover, Simon & Schuster: ISBN 978-1-4516-5770-8, 336 pages[1]
  • June 4, 2013, paperback, Simon & Schuster: ISBN 9781451657715, 352 pages[3]

Reception

The novel was a 2013 finalist for the PEN/Hemingway Award.[4] It was also a 2013 finalist for the Indies Choice Book of the Year Award, in the Adult Debut category.[5] Kirkus Reviews found it often lyrical and a painful personal account of the genocide.[1] The Guardian read it as a story about power, love and guilt, and social class under extreme conditions.[2]

References 5
  1. ↑ 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 1.11 1.12 Kirkus Reviews
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 The Guardian, review of In the Shadow of the Banyan (September 29, 2012)
  3. ↑ Bookreporter, review of In the Shadow of the Banyan
  4. ↑ The Hemingway Society, List of PEN/Hemingway Winners
  5. ↑ Gaithersburg Book Festival, The 2013 Indies Choice and E. B. White Read-Aloud Awards (April 4, 2013)
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This page was last edited on 22 October 2026, at 03:11.