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Anila's Journey
Menace and mystery lie in wait for a young girl who sets out to test herself in the man's world of late 18th century India.
304 pages, Paperback
First published January 7, 2008
8 people are currently reading
150 people want to read
About the author
Mary Finn
9 books6 followersMary Finn worked for years as a magazine journalist with Radio Telefís Eireann, the Irish broadcasting service. She says ANILA'S JOURNEY, her first novel, was inspired by the story behind the eighteenth-century PORTRAIT OF AN INDIAN LADY painted by Thomas Hickey. Mary Finn lives in Dublin.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 38 reviews
November 5, 2021
It's a sweet story, but it took me forever to finish it. I just couldn't get into it and kept falling asleep or zoning out. The description was nice and the writing isn't bad, but I had to re-read many of the passages. The ending is also extremely cheeky, which I didn't appreciate. All in all I'm happy to toss another book on the donation pile.
April 2, 2020
This was a very beautiful book, and Mary Finn's descriptive language is one of the reasons I like this book. However, I feel like this book was a little fragmented and wasn't pieced together really well, and it's not because of the flashbacks between each chapter, as I actually really like the flashbacks. Things just felt a little loose, and I don't know if it's just me, but I felt like there were gaps throughout the book, so much that I missed the part where Anila found the undiscovered bird, which is a crucial part in the book, and when I looked back, I couldn't find. Other than that, it was a great read!
January 29, 2010
This is a really fine book. For some reason it was aimed at the YA market but I think it will appeal to older readers just as much. Densely textured, fabulously descriptive, beautifully realised, it tells the story of Anila Tandy, an eighteenth century Irish-Indian girl fending for herself in Calcutta. Shown in a series of chapters interspersed with flashbacks, it describes how Anila’s Irish father seemingly abandoned his Indian “family,” leaving her mother with little choice but to pine away as the mistress of a kindly, but unimaginative English banker. Without going into graphic detail, the book makes it clear how vulnerable women were in those days, and how dependent they were on the goodwill of the European men who took them on.
Anila never stops believing in her father. After her mother’s death, she resolves to stay in Calcutta alone in case he returns. She decides to make her living as a bird painter: a decision which is exquisitely illuminated by the author’s delicate, evocative descriptions of birds. When Anila is hired by a curious but likeable Englishman to take a trip upriver to search for rare birds, her life changes.
The book is both readable and poetic. Anila notices that the European houses at night “glittered with their hundreds of chandeliers and sconces and lanterns, as if a piece of starry night was laid across the earth.” Her own house is an enchanting abandoned Gothic folly hidden in the wilderness at the bottom of a painter’s garden. Her Calcutta is peopled with real characters, bustling about, sweating, eating, scheming and arguing. It’s almost impossible to believe that the author, Mary Finn, was not brought up in India herself. Highly recommended
Anila never stops believing in her father. After her mother’s death, she resolves to stay in Calcutta alone in case he returns. She decides to make her living as a bird painter: a decision which is exquisitely illuminated by the author’s delicate, evocative descriptions of birds. When Anila is hired by a curious but likeable Englishman to take a trip upriver to search for rare birds, her life changes.
The book is both readable and poetic. Anila notices that the European houses at night “glittered with their hundreds of chandeliers and sconces and lanterns, as if a piece of starry night was laid across the earth.” Her own house is an enchanting abandoned Gothic folly hidden in the wilderness at the bottom of a painter’s garden. Her Calcutta is peopled with real characters, bustling about, sweating, eating, scheming and arguing. It’s almost impossible to believe that the author, Mary Finn, was not brought up in India herself. Highly recommended
September 16, 2009
Great for Eva Ibbotson fans and anyone who likes basically gentle historical fiction with one caveat there is a very rough scene with a boy who has been tortured. Also please note there is no romance with the main character although there is some romance in the book.
This is set in late 18th century India and is the story of a girl who has an Indian mother and an Irish father. Her mother is dead and her father missing but she has the fortune of being an incredible artist from a young age and so is taken in by a kindly Irish painter who helps her hone her craft. What she paints best is birds. Her benefactor is leaving for another part of India and she will be left with no income but in the last moment a position illustrating birds for a scientific expedition is found for her.
The story is told in the present on her trip with alternating flashbacks to the story of her mother and father. It is pleasurable, gentle, interesting, has a good female heroine (actually a few), not too many villains. This would be a good read for 11 and up especially for those who like atmospheric historical fiction.
This is set in late 18th century India and is the story of a girl who has an Indian mother and an Irish father. Her mother is dead and her father missing but she has the fortune of being an incredible artist from a young age and so is taken in by a kindly Irish painter who helps her hone her craft. What she paints best is birds. Her benefactor is leaving for another part of India and she will be left with no income but in the last moment a position illustrating birds for a scientific expedition is found for her.
The story is told in the present on her trip with alternating flashbacks to the story of her mother and father. It is pleasurable, gentle, interesting, has a good female heroine (actually a few), not too many villains. This would be a good read for 11 and up especially for those who like atmospheric historical fiction.
January 12, 2014
Nice tale but overly simplistic.
Mostly redeemed by the factual detail. The hardships are too quickly overcome by the intervention of 'nice' liberal open minded Britishers. There were some about but 18th century India was not at all kind to 'half castes' (where the term originates) as the class ridden British society exacerbated the existing Indian caste system.E.G a young English soldier would be unlikely to marry a disabled Armenian orphan with no dowry......
I hadn't realised that it was YA fiction but the style should've alerted me
Not a bad book but not to be highly recommended either
Mostly redeemed by the factual detail. The hardships are too quickly overcome by the intervention of 'nice' liberal open minded Britishers. There were some about but 18th century India was not at all kind to 'half castes' (where the term originates) as the class ridden British society exacerbated the existing Indian caste system.E.G a young English soldier would be unlikely to marry a disabled Armenian orphan with no dowry......
I hadn't realised that it was YA fiction but the style should've alerted me
Not a bad book but not to be highly recommended either
March 14, 2018
The idea to write this novel came from a famous painting - titled "An Indian Lady" - by the Irish artist Thomas Hickey. The painting (which can be found in the National Gallery of Ireland in Dublin) sparked Mary Finn's interest in the story of an Irishman wed to an Indian woman. In her fictional historical novel titled "Anila's Journey", readers will meet a compelling girl named Anila, half Irish and half Bengali, born during the eighteenth century. Finn portrays the hardships within the world she lives in; the world of colonial India: a world where cultures intertwine amid political unrest, creating social tensions within the family group and beyond. "Anila's Journey" fills this dark backdrop with vivid prose and mesmerizing poetry.
In colonial India during the late 18th century, racism ran rampant, and so there is a thread which runs within these pages that holds the issue of race relations. Yet, Mary Finn does not exploit this cultural phenomenon in her writing. Rather, she masters the art of implication with her words. For a young adult - this book is considered a “YA” novel (though I’d recommend it to anyone) - this style of writing may spark a curiosity in history, colonialism, post-colonialism, sociology, and/or critical theory. It also may give readers an idea of different types of artists: the artist related to preserving the human record – such as Thomas Hickey, who is renowned for his paintings of Indian women contextualized in Indian cultural symbols and artifacts of that time period. Also, the main character, Anila Tandy, portrays the artist related to scientific inquiry; she is taken on a special journey because of her innate talent for drawing animals, but especially birds.
Mary Finn’s novel, “Anila’s Journey” (published in 2008) traces the fine yet strong line that connects England to India. It is fascinating to see how different kinds of relationships grew between the English and the people of India within this story: there is that of the teacher and student, the translator and foreigner, the colonizer and manservant, the artist and sitter, the storyteller and listener, and so many more. Supposedly harsh relationships are illuminated by an unexpected gentleness. Relationships between people of the same country, mistaken sometimes for being good ones, are shown in all their brutality. Readers will learn about bibis – an Indian word translated into English as mistress. But something about bibi, in this novel, means a bit more than just a woman who sleeps with a man.
The man the young Anila is hired by, Mr. Walker, a Scottish man (there were other people in India besides the British during this time, such as the Scottish and the Irish), requires Anila to draw the birds she sees as their boat travels down the Ganges. Finn does not take this journey down the Ganges lightly – each page is full of description and there is no doubt that readers minds will blossom with images, smells, sounds, and the touch of India with each turn of the page. Readers will learn about the price of salt during that time; how there were two ways of getting this important commodity – with or without paying taxes.
That is just a tiny, tiny bit of the story. “Anila’s Journey” goes back and forth between past and present, blending the two together like a painter would, so seamlessly and delicately. Anila’s life is a turbulent one, perhaps representative of a weighty portion of Indian girls of that time. Her white father falls in love with her young dark-skinned mother, and for a better life, her young mother leaves her only home. Anila is born into a place of sadness and beauty, where her fellow Indian women are jealous one day and kind the next, where her father works hard and makes her mother laugh, where the birds sing and people dance, as well as steal and sell. But her childhood is for the most part a happy one, and even when her father must go back to Ireland to tend to an important private matter, Anila never lets go of that memory of happiness on her journey into adulthood, and into understanding her past.
“Anila’s Journey” is an immersion into Calcutta and Madras, the Ganges and other wonderful places in India. It will provide a good point of entry into a landscape of wonder and artistry set in that important time of worldview expansion, which Mary Finn seems to capture as if it were a *mere* few centuries ago.
In colonial India during the late 18th century, racism ran rampant, and so there is a thread which runs within these pages that holds the issue of race relations. Yet, Mary Finn does not exploit this cultural phenomenon in her writing. Rather, she masters the art of implication with her words. For a young adult - this book is considered a “YA” novel (though I’d recommend it to anyone) - this style of writing may spark a curiosity in history, colonialism, post-colonialism, sociology, and/or critical theory. It also may give readers an idea of different types of artists: the artist related to preserving the human record – such as Thomas Hickey, who is renowned for his paintings of Indian women contextualized in Indian cultural symbols and artifacts of that time period. Also, the main character, Anila Tandy, portrays the artist related to scientific inquiry; she is taken on a special journey because of her innate talent for drawing animals, but especially birds.
Mary Finn’s novel, “Anila’s Journey” (published in 2008) traces the fine yet strong line that connects England to India. It is fascinating to see how different kinds of relationships grew between the English and the people of India within this story: there is that of the teacher and student, the translator and foreigner, the colonizer and manservant, the artist and sitter, the storyteller and listener, and so many more. Supposedly harsh relationships are illuminated by an unexpected gentleness. Relationships between people of the same country, mistaken sometimes for being good ones, are shown in all their brutality. Readers will learn about bibis – an Indian word translated into English as mistress. But something about bibi, in this novel, means a bit more than just a woman who sleeps with a man.
The man the young Anila is hired by, Mr. Walker, a Scottish man (there were other people in India besides the British during this time, such as the Scottish and the Irish), requires Anila to draw the birds she sees as their boat travels down the Ganges. Finn does not take this journey down the Ganges lightly – each page is full of description and there is no doubt that readers minds will blossom with images, smells, sounds, and the touch of India with each turn of the page. Readers will learn about the price of salt during that time; how there were two ways of getting this important commodity – with or without paying taxes.
That is just a tiny, tiny bit of the story. “Anila’s Journey” goes back and forth between past and present, blending the two together like a painter would, so seamlessly and delicately. Anila’s life is a turbulent one, perhaps representative of a weighty portion of Indian girls of that time. Her white father falls in love with her young dark-skinned mother, and for a better life, her young mother leaves her only home. Anila is born into a place of sadness and beauty, where her fellow Indian women are jealous one day and kind the next, where her father works hard and makes her mother laugh, where the birds sing and people dance, as well as steal and sell. But her childhood is for the most part a happy one, and even when her father must go back to Ireland to tend to an important private matter, Anila never lets go of that memory of happiness on her journey into adulthood, and into understanding her past.
“Anila’s Journey” is an immersion into Calcutta and Madras, the Ganges and other wonderful places in India. It will provide a good point of entry into a landscape of wonder and artistry set in that important time of worldview expansion, which Mary Finn seems to capture as if it were a *mere* few centuries ago.
November 2, 2019
I randomly picked this book up off the shelf at school when I had a free class. I was interested in a story about other countries. At first I only wanted to read the chapters that weren't her past thoughts, but were her current adventures. But as the stories weaved together, I couldn't stop reading. Anila's attitude and determination to find her father, not forget her past, and accept adventure is impressive. I wish more teenagers were like that these days. Readers who love art and creativity will appreciate this book. Anila's talent and dedication make me want to learn more. This book is also an inspiration for all to continue to be kind to others, as you never know what the future holds, or what the past has done to a person.
August 5, 2017
It was alright. The descriptions and factual details of Indian culture made it interesting. So did the originality of the characters and plot. However, the problems were, as one other reviewer said, too easily resolved. Plus it failed to show how cruel the British were.
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September 8, 2024DNF
June 2, 2017
Anila's father has told her to wait for her in their village and her mother has died. The longer she waits for him the more she thinks he won't come back. In her village she is known as Bird Girl so when her guardian sees an ad for someone to draw birds they sign her up for an interview. Anila finds herself on a once in a lifetime experience. The journey brings back old memories of her mothers Bengali stories and her father's Irish stories. Will Anila's father come back for her or will she be on her own?
November 10, 2012
Reviewed by Tasha for TeensReadToo.com
When Anila Tandy's guardians, the Hickeys, decide to leave Calcutta, they beg her to accompany them, but she stubbornly refuses to come so that just in case her long-gone father returns as he promised many years ago, she'll be there.
Miss Hickey then sets her up with everything she'll need to survive by herself. Most importantly, she finds Anila a job as a bird painter on an expedition up the Ganges River.
As the days go by and she discovers new birds, she also reflects on her past. How life was like when her mother was still alive and her father was still around, or remembering the stories her mother used to tell. Along the journey, Anila also finds herself and grows up.
ANILA'S JOURNEY was a well-written historical story. The re-creation of historic India was fascinating and I enjoyed learning more about the older Indian culture. I thought that it was really interesting how Mary Finn alternated the chapters by telling what Anila was experiencing at the present and then stories about Anila's past - and then bringing them together in the end.
Anila herself was an interesting character who really grew up throughout the novel and became her true self. I loved all of the culture references and felt like I learned quite a bit. At times, the book got dry and I found that it was hard to keep reading, but then it would get better over time. Overall, I really did enjoy the book.
When Anila Tandy's guardians, the Hickeys, decide to leave Calcutta, they beg her to accompany them, but she stubbornly refuses to come so that just in case her long-gone father returns as he promised many years ago, she'll be there.
Miss Hickey then sets her up with everything she'll need to survive by herself. Most importantly, she finds Anila a job as a bird painter on an expedition up the Ganges River.
As the days go by and she discovers new birds, she also reflects on her past. How life was like when her mother was still alive and her father was still around, or remembering the stories her mother used to tell. Along the journey, Anila also finds herself and grows up.
ANILA'S JOURNEY was a well-written historical story. The re-creation of historic India was fascinating and I enjoyed learning more about the older Indian culture. I thought that it was really interesting how Mary Finn alternated the chapters by telling what Anila was experiencing at the present and then stories about Anila's past - and then bringing them together in the end.
Anila herself was an interesting character who really grew up throughout the novel and became her true self. I loved all of the culture references and felt like I learned quite a bit. At times, the book got dry and I found that it was hard to keep reading, but then it would get better over time. Overall, I really did enjoy the book.
March 23, 2010
Reading this incredibly poetic and lovely book is like floating down a calm river--the author has quite a gift for imagery. I did quibble with many too-neatly-tied plot threads, but overall this is a very compelling book. It is told in alternating memories and present events by Anila, a young half-Indian, half-Irish woman, living in the late 1700s in colonial India, who takes a job as a zoological painter for an Englishman. Her astonishing gift for painting birds is inherited from her Irish father, missing for many years, whom Anila longs to find, particularly after her mother dies. Readers will identify with Anila's quest and her courage. Most of the recent crop of books have been set in the 19th and 20th centuries, and this title gives a glimpse into an earlier time period, when it was common for wealthy European men to take Indian mistresses, leaving them virtually powerless and trapped in impossible situations. Highly recommended, junior high and older.
September 4, 2010
This book took me a few weeks to read and I'm usually a quick reader. Quite frankly, I was bored with it. The pages dragged on and, considering the length of the book, not much happened outside of flashbacks. It was rather depressing. In the case of Anila's mother I imagine that much of details were probably correct, in the opportunities and hardships she faced. However, I was less convinced of Anila's apparent freedom and self sufficiency, especially considering the book was set in 18th century India. I usually enjoy books about India but this one, while full of period details and interesting facts, failed to really capture my imagination and interest. Also, I was a bit disappointed by the 'tidy' ending. All the loose ends were tied up a bit too neatly. The ending just made the rest of the book seem that much less believable. I'd say this book is aimed towards YA readers and would probably not be captivating enough for younger readers to make it through all the pages.
June 5, 2011
The inspiration for this story came from a painting in the National Gallery in Dublin. Set in the lush tropics of 18th century India, this is an amazing, beautifully written tale. Anila Tandy is the biracial teen daughter of an Irish father and a poor but beautiful Bengali mother. Her father has mysteriously disappeared, and her mother has recently died, leaving Anila with kind guardians. Her guardians are moving to the city of Madras, and Anila wants to stay in Calcutta in case her father reappears. She has applied for a job traveling with a gentleman scientist for a month-long boat trip down the Ganges river. He is searching for new species of birds, and needs an artist to accurately record images of the birds they will see on the trip. Women at that time were extremely limited in the kinds of jobs they could get, and so though this was most unusual, it is believable because of Anila's artistic gifts and strong will. 7th grade and up.
June 10, 2009
Much as I enjoyed it--and as a fan of Rumer Godden, Paul Scott and just about everything else written about India outside of A Passage to India, I did--I don't see tons of appeal here for teens.
It's uneven and some of the characters and incidents don't work as well as the author thinks they should. But it was good enough that I will be interested in what she comes up with next, even if I don't buy it for my particular library.
It's uneven and some of the characters and incidents don't work as well as the author thinks they should. But it was good enough that I will be interested in what she comes up with next, even if I don't buy it for my particular library.
July 1, 2016
This book reminded me, ultimately, of some of Charles Dicken's work- where the heroine is good and pure (and see that she stays that way!) though several of the surrounding members of the cast are wicked scoundrels. Yet everything works out for the best after several convoluted twists. All of this told through an Indian girl's viewpoint.
Does an average Indian Dickensian soap opera about sum 'Anila's Journey' up? Well, it does for me.
Additional: it will appeal much more often to women than to men. Saris are beautiful but I would never spend that much time examining the fine materials of which they are made- with the guys.
Does an average Indian Dickensian soap opera about sum 'Anila's Journey' up? Well, it does for me.
Additional: it will appeal much more often to women than to men. Saris are beautiful but I would never spend that much time examining the fine materials of which they are made- with the guys.
February 18, 2014
Loved the story of a young woman struggling to develop her art in colonial India. THe setting was lush.aot of it, set on an actual river journey, where she is to document different birds. Read it quite a while ago and just remembered it! But I recall that there was a nasty conflict on the boat with a young man. THe ending not to give it away was satisfying, the characters well portrayed; including fortune tellers,the setting was rich and the book was written beautifully.
Perhaps this might be called an old fashioned novel. I enjoyed it very much.
I am usually a bit stingy with stars, so five mean very good.
Perhaps this might be called an old fashioned novel. I enjoyed it very much.
I am usually a bit stingy with stars, so five mean very good.
January 30, 2009
309 pages. Anila Tandy is half Irish and half Bengali living in colonial India, and she has a wonderful gift with drawing, especially birds. She is alone in the world, as her father left years ago, and her mother died of dispair a few years later. Anila dares to apply for the draughtsman job with Mr. Walker, and even though she is a woman, she is accepted and taken on a revealing journey up the mystic Ganges River. Her story is revealed in alternating chapters between her past and her present, and we are left at the end with hope for her future.
May 20, 2017
It only took 6 weeks or so, but I finally finished it! It was a very interesting story, not like any others I've read, but parts were very disturbing to me, and I also wondered about the likelihood of some of the scenarios (particularly relating to the freedom allowed to the young, single female characters), given the time frame (late 1700s).
Though it's from the YA/Children's I wouldn't recommend for younger readers in those categories.
Though it's from the YA/Children's I wouldn't recommend for younger readers in those categories.
July 22, 2009
thought it was good,,a lot of the characters didn't really have any different qualities,,the plot was good and Anila's story original..but i felt something was missing,,,needed more....just more.
The setting was vividly discribed and being from the same culture i thought Mary Finn did her research on Indian and Bengali Culture,,i couldn't help but smile everytime a certain Bengali or Urdu word was mentioned.
good ,light book.
The setting was vividly discribed and being from the same culture i thought Mary Finn did her research on Indian and Bengali Culture,,i couldn't help but smile everytime a certain Bengali or Urdu word was mentioned.
good ,light book.
July 12, 2013
This book was very interesting. The writing style was not quite like other books, but it was endearing, nonetheless. I particularly like how everything fell into place at the end, but it didn't feel like the author was just tying up all the loose ends. A series of very believable (and sometimes, seemingly hard-won) coincidences led to a very satisfactory ending to a story of a girl who is not quite like anyone else, as she find her way through a difficult life.
December 16, 2009
I enjoyed the Indian setting and descriptions of life for a poor girl and her mother in late 18th century Calcutta. Will teens read it? Not unless forced. It drags at the beginning especially and the writing is florid and interspersed with more Bengali words and phrases than most teens will want to plow through.
March 18, 2008
A lovely book- beautiful descriptions- young girl part Indian part-Irish with a gift of a good eye and a skill in drawing and love of birds and plants- on a journey on the Ganges. A real joy to imerse myself in.Well-written with glorious description.
January 6, 2009
Anila Tandy, a young woman who is half-Irish and half-Bengali, must find a way to support herself in 18th century India, and chooses to try to become an artist for a scientific expedition up the Ganges, in this beautifully-written coming-of-age tale.
January 29, 2011
Beautiful, haunting, sad, and hopeful. A powerful tale of a girl retaining hope even as her innocence gives way under the heavy press of her circumstances. This story is as compelling as an exquisitely rendered canvas.
Read
April 22, 2012Not sure how I feel about this one. I think I need to digest it a little bit. I enjoyed it while reading it, which is always a good thing. The setting was so lush, and I loved hearing about the painting and drawing Anila was doing.
April 15, 2015
I bought this book a few years ago and I had already read the first few chapters and I wondered why I hadn't kept going. I've figured out why. I really hated this book. It dragged on and on and nothing major happened for a very long time and it just wasn't enjoyable for me at all.
December 1, 2009
Love the lyrical storytelling that goes back and forth in time. The characters are strong the setting well portrayed. The ending is weak and think turn out by coincidence.
February 3, 2009
A small glimpse of life in India, during the 18th century. Good story.
July 8, 2009
Great cultural read. Set in period India.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 38 reviews