• Novel: Mari
• Author: Easterine Kire Iralu
• Genre: war, romance
• Publication date: 2010
• Publisher: Harper Collins, India
• Pages: 167
• Cost: ₹350 (paperback) Purchased for 250 (Amazon IN)

Blogpost by Dhanu

Recommended for an easy and quick read, to enjoy the beautiful tri-love story of a Northeast Indian girl, Mari.

For content 4🌟/5

For cover design 4🌟/5

It is a simple read with no other exaggeration of events and is presented as it was. It gives me the experience of reading a diary of a young girl whose life meets lots of turns in her love life during the Indo-China invasion.

The novel sets in North-east India, Kohima in 1944. I happened to read this novel during the second semester of my master’s which became a quick read. We can easily visualise the war tensions and the life of people in the Northeast parts of India during the Japanese invasion in the 1940s. The protagonist is Khrielievii Mari O’Leary (Mari), the aunt of the author. The incidents described in the novel happened from the perspective of seventeen years old girl, Mari (as the title says) and the struggles she faced. The author achieves bringing the incidents in a realistic manner which helps the readers to experience the happenings during the invasion. The novel centres on the love life of Mari amidst the warzone in Kohima.

In the author’s note, Kire gives the details of her journey of writing and collecting the materials to form a complete structure. It helps a lot to understand the background of the story.

The cover of the book presents the amazing creativity of the designer. The front side of the book cover contains a Northeast architectural style hut, a picture of a woman (might be the protagonist, Mari), the marigold flower ( which symbolised love between Mari and her fiancé, Victor) and the headline page of The Japanese Government. The cover of the book itself presents the content that is enclosed in the book. The back cover again contains the two Marigolds. These two flowers resemble the beautiful love between the couple, Mari and Victor.

The situation depicted in this novel is realistic and brought the picture of the incidents before the eyes of the readers. The loss and impacts of war on the life of people are clearly described. No one knows whether the victims survive or not. It would be worse to lose dear ones. The displacement, suffering, loss and finally peace are naturally presented by the writer.

Even though it is a short read, it created an in-depth sight of love and loss. This makes me roll with emotional tears which lasted with me for at least two days and the pains, I experienced during the reading of the novel, are still with me whenever I think about this particular novel.

The language used in this book is also simple and lucid. The style of the novel hugely helps the readers to go with the flow.

My favourite Quote from the novel:

Life seemed to flow by like a lazy river, and for once everything seemed to be in place. (165)

I highly recommend this book for beginners.