I always love stories that have a fabric of nostalgia woven in their premise. I have grown up reading stories like these. That's how we come to Like Premchand, Mahadevi Verma, among others. They bring the India of a certain past alive to us.
This story did the same, although it doesn't concern itself with the distant past. It brings the nostalgia of not-so-long-ago: the times we were growing up. By we, I refer to the coterie of educated people, who grew up in the middle-class neighbourhoods, making memories out of pickles and flavours and tastes and smells. All of the senses that we take with ourselves wherever we go. And that means, even abroad.
Reading such a tale in the form of a graphic novel was a first for me, and the author did complete justice!

'Amla Mater' with words and art by Devi Menon is a graphic novel about a woman who is pregnant, and all the memories that brings with it.

Mili is waiting for her baby in London. She sees little reminders of her home in India. Amla, or gooseberry, is something that her grandmother pickled, and Mili tries to recreate it. As she waits for the pickles to be ready, and the baby grows inside her, other memories of friends and places come to her.

It's a sweet and nostalgic story. The art is a bit basic, but since the author drew it, I can appreciate it. The story speaks of longing for home and even things that can never be again, and that resonated with me as a reader.

I received a review copy of this graphic novel from Yali Books and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for allowing me to review this graphic novel.

****Thanks to NetGalley for an e-arc in exchange for my honest review.****



I thought this graphic novel was pretty boring for me , I think maybe because I really do not relate to it. I guess that people who have moved away from their country will relate to this story and really enjoy it I really did not like it at all.

This is really short and lovely graphic novel. Mila is away from home and expecting her first child and misses her hometown. She connected her childhood memories through gooseberries pickles. This graphic novels contains friendship. pregnancy and pickles. I loved how Mila created Maya's grandmother's pickle recipe and remembered her past. I loved Maya and Mila's friendship. But sometimes you lost someone really weird times. People left you but you can reconnect them again. I enjoyed reading this.

Amla Mater is a graphic novel about identity, migration, and the meaning of home through food culture. Through smells and flavors, the very act of making gooseberry pickle, we join Mili in remembering her childhood in Kerala with best friend Maya. We learn that the amla tree is a constant theme through Mili’s life: It’s at the heart of the games she plays, offers a place in the shade under which to read, provides the gooseberries for Maya’s grandmother to make her pickle.

There is such a heavy sense of nostalgia and the meaning of home that is evoked through smells and sounds. I’m sure all of us have something that brings back memories of home so vividly. For me it’s the smell of my dad’s spicy scrambled eggs, a Sunday family tradition, and sitting at the table for hours eating and chatting (to the confusion of white German friends and family who by this time had already finished whole biking tours and like saved the world 😀 ).

And surprisingly, the reduced black-and-white artwork works really well, as it does not distract from the sensory goodness evoked by Mili’s memories of amla. I also found the images created in this style with its light strokes utterly charming.

Amla Mater emphasizes the importance of food culture in the migration experience. Food and not just its consumption, but its preparation as well are heavily tied to identity and Menon takes us on Mili’s journey – not just geographically from India to London- but also her coming of age from being a young Indian girl to an immigrant in London. I think readers from South India will find a lot of cultural references and nods to enjoy. I probably missed many, but really enjoyed Mili’s story and now I’m hungry for amla pickle!

While I appreciate the openness and thoughtfulness of Menon's piece, I felt that the overall flow of the story and quality of the artwork hinder it form reaching its full potential.

Nostalgia comes in many forms, and in this case it's the memory of amla (gooseberry) pickles that takes the reader on a journey to the author's childhood in India. The main character reminisces about her childhood, family, and friends while awaiting her first child thousands of miles away from India. The use of the pickles is not only a recurring thread in the protagonist's memories but lightly drives the plot for the contemporary storyline. There isn't a lot of plot but that isn't what this book is about.

While I enjoyed the story, I can't say that the drawing style did much for me. That's as much a matter of personal taste as anything, so other readers may enjoy the artist's style more than I did.

Now I want to try some Indian amla pickles!

A short but lovely read that made me nostalgic for my days in Chennai.

This is a lovely graphic novel. A chance find of gooseberries reminds Mili of her childhood in India and her best friend. She decides to recreate the pickle recipe--which requires gooseberries--of the friend's grandmother, knowing it will be ready at about the same time the baby is born. The weekly growth of the fetus in the womb is shared at the beginning of each chapter, while the story of Mili's life--including moving to England and falling in love there--plays out slowly. Give this to a mother-to-be or any mother who appreciates learning about other cultures. Very satisfying story.

A beautiful and sparse graphic novel. Loved it a lot.

The play on words in the title accurately leads readers to expect themes of cross-pollination in language and culture to dominate this graphic novel for adults. Amla Mater is sophisticated in its simplicity in using Mili's current pregnancy as a framework for recalling her childhood. Different kinds of vessels store cravings and memories and potential future outcomes. The author-illustrator's words and drawings convey a variety of meanings with economic precision.

When I finished reading Amla Mater, it took me a few minutes to shake myself, and come out of the lyrical, sepia-toned world that this beautiful book creates. It begins with Mili, the central character in this novelette, encountering a few gooseberries that takes her back to her childhood. From there, the book moves on gently weaving in and out of the past and the present.

Mili’s story is rooted in the present where she is pregnant and is eagerly awaiting her baby’s arrival. On one of her days off she decides to make a jar of gooseberry pickle, the process of which inspires more nostalgia. Through Mili’s narrative we get a glimpse of her life from her childhood, through her teenaged years, to when she works as an intern, and later meets her future husband in London.

The memories that Devi Menon describes in Amla Mater are bittersweet just like the gooseberries. There is a certain soft glow that surrounds the narration, which feels just like wiggling into your favourite armchair and feeling its familiar warmth, especially the very provincial flavour, which is achieved by the interspersing of folklore, tales told by grandmothers, and little anecdotes.

Menon’s sketches are beautiful monochrome frames with many of them having intricate border work that add to the dialogues or the narration. But the ones that really stood out for me were the ones, which didn’t have either, and yet conveyed volumes. In many ways, Amla Mater reminded me of Craig Thompson’s Blankets with its deft and gorgeous artwork that is so rich in expression and imagination.

Amla Mater’s boon and its bane, unfortunately, is the fact that it’s so deeply Indian in its background. For example, Mili’s stay with Paatti who is described as, “the quintessential Tamil Brahmin matriarch, down to her diamond nose ring” or the frames where Menon shows us Mili’s love for Chennai by sketching filter coffee being poured or a kolam being drawn are accessible and understandable only to Indians. I immediately related to these very telling cultural icons of Tamil Nadu. But for that you need to get under the skin of a culture, know it inside out. For someone who is not an Indian and never even visited India these illustrations are muted. The book stops speaking to them at some level, and this can make for a disjointed reading experience.

Menon could also have fleshed out the story a little more, perhaps, by adding a few more layers to the character of the Baker, Mili's mother, and maybe her other significant friends like Nandini. But then Amla Mater would not serve the purpose that it does right now – take you on a nostalgia-drenched trip, and not just that of Mili but your own as well. It’s not an easy task to accomplish within the folds of a mere 146 pages, which is what Menon has accomplished so skilfully.

“Sometimes a little thing is all it takes for the mind to wander into long forgotten corners, even to the most wilfully neglected ones.” I will remember this little book for a long time to come.

I always love stories that have a fabric of nostalgia woven in their premise. I have grown up reading stories like these. That's how we come to Like Premchand, Mahadevi Verma, among others. They bring the India of a certain past alive to us.
This story did the same, although it doesn't concern itself with the distant past. It brings the nostalgia of not-so-long-ago: the times we were growing up. By we, I refer to the coterie of educated people, who grew up in the middle-class neighbourhoods, making memories out of pickles and flavours and tastes and smells. All of the senses that we take with ourselves wherever we go. And that means, even abroad.
Reading such a tale in the form of a graphic novel was a first for me, and the author did complete justice!

A sweet tale of a woman who, during pregnancy, reminisces about her childhood in India. Charming in parts, but, ultimately, it didn't really strike a chord for me.