Nine Yard Sarees: a short story cycle

Synopsis

Winner, Singapore Literature Prize 2024 (Fiction, English)

Finalist, Best Literary Work, Singapore Book Awards 2024

Nine Yard Sarees is a multigenerational portrait of a fictional Tamil Brahmin family. Comprising eleven interlinked stories, this short story cycle traces the lives of nine women from 1950 all the way to 2019, shedding light on the community and its evolution through the decades. As the stories take us from India to Singapore, Australia and even America, we follow the experiences of the women in the family: Raji the matriarch who lives in seclusion at an ashram; her daughter Padma who struggles to raise her family the traditional way; Padma’s daughter Keerthana who is about to be married and don the nine yard saree, a symbol of womanhood. Tender, dynamic and full of heart, this cycle is a resonant portrayal of female solidarity and the complexities of the diasporic experience in contemporary Singapore.

The following stories contain some references to sensitive topics which may warrant content notices:

Rakshasa—casteist rhetoric; fat phobic language
Agni’s Trials—sexual harrassment
The Perfect Shot—sexual assault
Nine Yard Sarees—racism; fat phobic language
Loose Threads—self-harm; pregnancy loss
In Her Graveyard, She Bloomed—homophobic language; pregnancy loss
Before the Rooster Calls—domestic abuse

While the content of these stories is fictional, these topics reflect real issues. We recognise that the ways in which readers might respond to and deal with these issues may vary, as our relationships to these topics are unique. If you find yourself feeling overwhelmed or not in the right headspace to experience the stories, do put the book down and talk to someone about how you feel.

About The Author

Prasanthi Ram is a writer, editor and lecturer. Her debut short story cycle Nine Yard Sarees (2023) won the Singapore Literature Prize (SLP) for English Fiction in 2024, and was also shortlisted for SLP’s “Best Debut” category and Singapore Book Awards’ “Best Literary Work” category in the same year. Her writing has been published in the Best Singaporean Short Stories: Volume Five (2022), Making Kin: Ecofeminist Essays from Singapore (2021) and the award-winning Eat Here or Take Away (2022) among others. She also co-founded and is the prose editor of Mahogany Journal, which spotlights South Asian writers born or based in Singapore. Photo credit: Diana Rahim