'Supple artful skilful storytelling - it takes an immediate grip on the reader's imagination
and doesn't let go' HILARY MANTEL______________________________________________Mary is a
difficult grandmother for Durga to love. She is sharp-tongued and ferocious with more demons
than there are lines on her palms. When Durga visits her in rural Malaysia she only wants to
endure Mary and the dark memories home brings for as long as it takes to escape. But a
reckoning is coming. Stuck together in the rising heat both women must untangle the truth from
the myth of their family's past. What happened to Durga's mother after she gave birth? Why did
so many of their family members disappear during the war? And who is to blame for the childhood
tragedy that haunts her to this day?In her stunning debut novel Catherine Menon traces one
family's story from 1920 to the present unravelling a thrilling tale of love betrayal and
redemption against the backdrop of natural disasters and fallen empires. Written in vivid
technicolour with an electric daughter-grandmother relationship at its heart Fragile Monsters
explores what happens when secrets fester through the generations.As they will learn in a
place ravaged by floods it is only a matter of time before the bones of the past
emerge.______________________________________________'A brilliant novel about homecoming and
the layered unstable past that haunts and hurts . . . I admire it enormously' Colm Tóibín'A
propulsive debut scattered with gems of fresh and surprising imagery' Preti Taneja'A beautiful
richly textured absorbing read. I was utterly transported' Irenosen Okojie
