Taking its title from a line of Coleridge regarding "work without hope," for ten points, identify this novel about Rukmani and Nathan, the best known work of Kamala Markandaya.
In one scene in this novel, the narrator is surprised to see a former rival grown fat when that rival comes asking for some rice. One character in this novel is engaged in the building of a hospital, which leads the narrator's son to put down his spade and say that instead of being a farmer he will go be an assistant for Kenny. That son, Selvam, is later distressed to find that the tannery is evicting his parents, who are forced to go to another son, Murugan, only to find that the latter has abandoned his family, at which point the narrator's husband dies and she adopts the leper boy Puli. This work opens with the narrator's recollection of how her husband came for her when she was still a girl. Other characters in this novel include Kunthi, with whom the narrator's husband fathers several children, as well as Kali, Janaki, and the main character's daughter Irrawaddy. Taking its title from a line of Coleridge regarding "work without hope," for ten points, identify this novel about Rukmani and Nathan, the best known work of Kamala Markandaya.
In one scene in this novel, the narrator is surprised to see a former rival grown fat when that rival comes asking for some rice.
Nectar in a Sieve