This book is a great example of its more about the journey than the destination. The authors beautiful and sensitive way of describing some of the topics in this book made it such a compelling read.
The narrator through the audio book was excellent at distinguishing between the different characters voices and really helped to bring the story alive

I find it difficult to be critical of this title because it covers so many sensitive themes with compassion. Post partition India was one of the worst examples of colonialism and its aftermath and the social divides are unimaginable. Rao’s writing is sensitive and although the violence is outlined, it’s muted and overall that sensitivity detracts from the potential power of this incredible story.

It’s a tale of divisions; rich and poor, class and caste, love and loss and much more. It’s a slow and sprawling story which, in the main, is immersive but lacks drama. I wanted a little variation in pace at times to emphasise some of the conflicts and horrors. I listened to this over a number of days with breaks in between; I couldn’t get into hearing right through. The narration is gentle and engaging. I’ve rounded a generous three point five up to 4

This is a brilliant book. I'm so happy to have been able to listen to it. The Fertile Earth follows two groups of siblings connected through complicated lines and follows how a childhood escapade escalates into life changing contexts for each person. When uprisings in India begin to target wealthy and exploitative families, the politics and allegiances of the siblings are tested and challenged.

I generally favour pacy books and this is defintitely a slow burn read. However, Ruthvika Rao has really crafted the story line so that you are connected to the characters and invested in how they end up in the place at the start of the book. The end is brilliantly done and even if you think you know what's going to happen, she adds more. I'm not a crier but I found the culmuniation of all the plots extremely effecting. Can't wait for whatever this author does next.

I began this novel with patience, happily waiting for it to sweep me up and for the characters to carry me away.

However, although I grew to care for the cast, and their paths through the story did pull me through to a certain extent, none of the characters, to me, felt indispensable to the plot, nor really that compelling in the end.

By the final movements of the narrative, I felt no incentive to finish ‘The Fertile Earth’. Nothing had really happened. Yes, there was action, and it was ‘tumultuous’, as the blurb states, but somehow, the novel, overall, flatlined.

My overwhelming sensation listening to ‘The Fertile Earth’ was that I’d read this book before, and many times, at that. Though I can acknowledge the craft and effort evident in Rao’s writing, effort without flair doesn’t always succeed. And although I could see Krishna’s face clearly at times and I could almost feel the fabrics and the jewellery Vijaya wears, I didn’t – as many other reviewers have - think the imagery was intense or immersive.

Perhaps I’m not exactly the target demographic for ‘The Fertile Earth’, yet I am a big fan of Historical Fiction, so I’m not ignorant of the contemporary standard of writing out there in the genre.

All the same, the narration was first-rate. Sneha Mathan gives a vibrant, emotionally rich rendering of the main characters, and demonstrates her versatility through her interpretation of the individualities comprising the opposing classes at conflict in Post-Independence Indian society.

Still, thanks go to the excellent Bolinda Audio for the chance to listen to an advanced copy.

Thank You for the opportunity to read The Fertile Earth by Ruthvika Rao.

This book transported me to a different time and felt like a saga. I could picture the world built by the author and somehow that felt like another character in the book.

Without going too much into it, I would like to say that this one is a winner.

You will be hooked when you start reading.

This book is beautifully written and has a very clear sense of time and place. I felt like I learnt a lot about the history of India post Independence but it also left me wanting to learn more. Despite all this I don't think I was the target audience for this book, I don't think I understood the significance of a lot of what happened in the story because I didn't know anything about India from this time period. I also found the relationships between the characters a little hard to follow, to the point that I variously thought they were all related, none of them were related or somewhere in between.

This is distinctly a book that's more about the journey than the destination, as the plot can be boiled down to a relatively simple story, but where this book shines is the descriptions of the everyday. I did find the characters a bit difficult to connect with, there was a lot of bad communication between them and a lot of very angry people who took their anger out on innocent parties, which made it difficult to empathise with them.

I listened to this on audiobook, I enjoyed being able to hear the names, places and snippets of various languages pronounced correctly, the narrator's voice was very soothing and they were able to convey a variety of characters successfully. At times they were a little fast and quiet, which meant I felt like I missed some of the important detail of the story.

Thank you to Net Galley, Bolinda Audio and Ruthvika Rao for the free audiobook.

Beginning with a childhood friendship between two girls and two boys - respectively, the offspring of a wealthy aristocratic family and the children of their workers - Fertile Earth is a sprawling saga that covers a critical period in the history of a country, as well as the impact of those events on the lives of the four key individuals featured in these pages.

Themes of class, caste, violence, social privilege, family tensions and forbidden love in post independence India are woven together to deliver a memorable tale. The characters are well done, and their emotions very effectively conveyed.

Well worth checking out for those who like historical novels, this is also a good introduction to the country for those who are not familiar with the history of this region. It gets 3.5 stars.

4.5 stars rounded up

This was a stunningly compelling debut filled with difficult family relationships, troubled love and the painful consequences of caste and labour exploitation. Having learned about the Naxalite movement from Abraham Verghese’s THE COVENANT OF WATER, I was interested to read a story that touched on them from a different angle. The prose style was simple and straightforward, and yet it managed to be evocative as well as propulsive. The characterisation was my favourite part — all of the characters were crafted tenderly but unflinchingly, and I feel as though I met them all as real people.

My only disappointment was the way the ending was written. The plot events and conversations that would provide a release of tension all happened off page, or were told from a more distant perspective, and after such an intense and emotional story this just wasn’t satisfying for me. I really wavered over whether this was worth docking half a star or a whole one, but I decided 4.5 was about right for how much I was captivated by the rest of the book. I look forward to future books from this author.

I received a free audiobook from Netgalley in return for an honest review. It was narrated by Sneha Mathan, who did a wonderful job.

A sweeping saga about class divide in India, politics, rebellion and trying to forge your own path and be with the person you love despite everything. A novel about love and hate.

I'm going to be blunt, Rao has written an excellent book that announces her as a new literary force, however this book frustrated me, because it could have been a truely great book that is remember for years and years, than brands itself upon the literary cannon, but it falls short of that. For a while I was comparing this to Rohinton Mistery's epic novel A Fine Balance, but Rao has just played it a bit safe.

This will be one of the best novels you will read this year, but Ruthvika Rao has a scary amount of talent and should be slightly disappointed by the 'this year' cavaet.

Great atmospheric writing, a gaspworthy climax, emotional roller-coaster, politically critical, well crafted characters.

The Fertile Earth grabbed my attention from the get-go with an opening scene featuring an eleven year old boy witnessing the killing of the local zamindar's (feudal landlord's) family by a group of armed guerillas. The book then goes back 15 years and builds back up to this shocking incident. It's an excellent work of historical fiction exploring post-partition India in the period 1955-1970. Social divisions based on caste and wealth are key themes, as is the rise of the Marxist Naxalite movement. It's also an ill-fated love story between Vijaya, niece of the zamindar, and Krishna, son of a servant. The story has depth and breadth and includes many interwoven strands, including an inciting incident, an ill-considered childish caper to capture a tiger that has devastating and life-long impacts. Many different facets of the human experience - friendship, sisterhood, grief, regret, shame, sacrifice, anger, ambition, and more - are incorporated in strong, satisfying storytelling .The writing is lush, full of beautiful, vivid detailed descriptions that made for a very immersive reading experience. The countryside, the people, and the social environment all came to life, for better and for worse. For this is not always an easy or pleasant book to read due to many cruelties, everything from a mother constantly favouring one daughter while denigrating the other to a child being almost whipped to death, However, I'm not one to shy away from difficult reading material, particularly when it is representative of real-life events or conditions. This book was well worth my time and effort.

I listened to this on audio. The narration by Sneha Mathan was excellent. I found her voice really pleasant to listen to, and she did a great job differentiating the voices of the characters. Hearing the story read by a narrator of Indian heritage added to the immersive experience and gave me confidence that the Telegu words were pronounced correctly. The inclusion of Indian music at the start of each new section was a small but appreciated extra, one which further enhanced the audio production.

Many thanks to @netgalley and @bolindaaudio for my ALC. This audiobook releases 9/5.

This bold debut by Ruthvika Rao packages an age old story in a fantastic new container.

Set between 1950s-70s Andhra in the rural backdrop of a zamindari village with it's caste and class oppressions that leads to a Naxalism, the book follows India's story in the villages. Amidst it all is the story of Vijaya and Krishna - two people whose lives are irrevocably altered due to a childhood mishap.

The books starts in 1970 in Irumi village with heads on pikes of the Deshmukh household described after a detailing of how a cow is deskinned. She announces her style and then goes on to the past of the Zamindari system in 1950s where it was considered a duty to maintain social classes. The Deshmukh's have two daughters Vijaya and Shree - not equal to the mother.

There is a friendship that blooms between Vijaya and Krishna, the son of the washerwoman. Krishna, along with his elder brother Ranga accompany Vijaya and Shree go on a tiger hunt that goes horribly wrong. Krishna gets sent to Osmania university in Hyderabad never to set foot in Irumi again.

The section in Hyderabad - student politics and communal vote banks represent the period. Meanwhile, Vijaya goes to study in Presidency college Madras - and she finds her own. Their stories and the families across 20 years forms the engaging story.

I loved the writing style - simple and bold. The narrative style is not conventionally linear - she starts a chapter sometime in future from the ending of the previous chapter and later fills in the blanks. It took a while to get used to, but then you understood the effect. The book, on the whole, leaves you with a heavy heart.

Liked this one. Look forward to what more she can do!
Special shoutout to the narration by Sneha Mathan in this audiobook.

Disclaimer: Thank you Bolinda books and netgalley for the ARC of the book.

‘The Fertile Earth’ is a captivating tale of two families set against the backdrop of 1950s to 1970s India. It is a story of the lives of two young people from different social standings, initially drawn together through friendship, and later bound by a tragic event.

When I first requested this book, I knew very little about it, which is often my favourite way to approach a story like this. Family sagas, especially those with a historical nature, can be quite hit or miss for me, but this one was most definitely a hit.

If, like me, you find yourself intimidated by politically charged historical novels, there's no need to worry. Before reading this book, I knew very little about the political landscape of post-partition and post-independence India, but Ruthvika Roa masterfully interweaves this background within the context of the characters we follow, without it ever feeling heavy-handed or overly complex. I became incredibly attached to the main characters and was deeply invested in how their lives would unfold. I could hardly put the book down, driven by the need to know what would happen next. These families and their stories will stay with me for a long time.

What truly stood out to me about this novel was the way each setting was vividly brought to life—from the dense jungles on the outskirts of a rural village, to the uncertainty of a politically charged, bustling city, and back to the jungle bordered village bound by feud and hierarchy. Every location was seamlessly constructed, leaving me well and truly entranced.

I read this book as an audiobook, and I absolutely have to highlight Sneha Mathan’s narration, which kept me utterly hooked. I became completely absorbed in the story and the way it was told. I highly recommend listening to this one on audio if you have the opportunity—I've may have already started a second listen! ;)

Thanks to NetGalley and Bolinda Audio for the audio ARC. All opinions are my own.