Riambel
Fifteen-year-old Noemi has no choice but to leave school and work in the house of the wealthy De Grandbourg family. Just across the road from the slums where she grew up, she encounters a world that is starkly different from her own – yet one which would have been all too familiar to her ancestors. Bewitched by a pair of green eyes and haunted by echoes, her life begins to mirror those of girls who have gone before her.
Within Noemi’s lament is also the herstory of Mauritius; the story of women who have resisted arrest, of teachers who care for their poorest pupils and encourage them to challenge traditional narratives, of a flawed Paradise undergoing slow but unstoppable change.
In Riambel, Priya Hein invites us to protest, to rail against longstanding structures of class and ethnicity. She shows us a world of natural enchantment contrasted with violence and the abuse of power. This seemingly simple tale of servitude, seduction and abandonment blisters with a fierce sense of injustice.
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Original Language
ENGLISH (WEL) | The Indigo Press
Translation Rights
FRENCH | Éditions Globe
GERMAN | Gutkind Verlag
CATALAN | Sembra Llibres
Prizes
Winner of the 2021 Jean-Fanchette Prize
Winner of the 2023 Prix littéraire Athéna – Ville de Saint-Pierre
Reviews
A Brittle Paper Notable Book of 2023
"Riambel bravely grasps the complexity of ethnic relationships in Mauritius . . . displaying great art in the sense of shame blended with indignation and in the gaps in what is not said.” J. M. G. Le Clézio, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature
"In the span of a mere 160 pages, this extraordinary debut packs rare insight into the trauma and deference seeded by the long reign of capitalism and the white man’s whims." The Cardiff Review
"I was astounded by the blistering prose and originality in Priya Hein’s stunning debut . . . Against the backdrop of uncomfortable and, at times, disturbing fragments depicting abuse, rape and exploitation, I loved the way the richness of the local Mauritians’ culture is depicted: through culinary recipes, oral history, poetry and songs woven beautifully into the narrative. It’s a slim novel but one that punches deeply and screams aloud. It invites us to oppose the injustice of the longstanding structures of class, hostility and white capitalism." Nataliya Deleva, author of Four Minutes and Arrival
"Not just a brilliant addition to contemporary Mauritian literature, but to literature, period. I’m feeling the book’s themes of power, ethnicity, and colonial legacy – then and now – alongside its cold rage, vulnerability and utter strength deeply. It truly sings." Niven Govinden, author of Diary of a Film
"With Riambel, Priya Hein has given us a book that should be essential reading for all those who care about our history, in particular the devastating legacy of slavery; but what is extraordinary is that she tells this harrowing story in the most beautiful prose, luminous and musical, drawing in the reader before hitting them hard with the reality of her young narrator's life, and the humiliations and pain she endures because of this very legacy. Today more than ever, this story needs to be told; Priya Hein does so movingly and powerfully." Ananda Devi, author of Eve Out of Her Ruins
"Priya Hein’s novel is spell-binding. Riambel is beautiful. It is terse and yet lyrical. It is tough, and yet bursting with life." Lindsey Collen, author of The Rape of Sita and Getting Rid of it
"Beautiful, powerful prose supporting an important story. I’ll be haunted by the mother and her two daughters from Riambel for years to come. Please treat yourself to this pithy novel." Zeba Talkhani, author of My Past is a Foreign Country and The Most Exciting Eid
"On the inhale it is rich with the beauty of her world, the ugliness of the divide between rich and poor; on the exhale it is musical, powerful, and bitterly melancholic." Ruth McKee, Irish Times
"Reading Riambel, surrendering to the layers of its prose and poetry, inviting a look at the map, a look at history, a look at the natural world, a look at the literary culture of Jean Fanchette, Robert Edward-Hart and Priya Hein herself, is both to understand how far there is to go and to contemplate spaces where futures are made." Laetitia Erksine, Lucy Writers
"A stunning book which cradles the anger of generational slavery experienced by Mauritians . . . thank you Priya for sharing our history with the world." Shelina Permalloo, Restaurateur, Food Writer and TV Chef