"Amla, from the Sanskrit amlaki, is the edible fruit of the Indian gooseberry tree (Phyllanthus emblica). The fruit is round, greenish-yellow in colour and hard to touch. Ripe amlas have a unique taste that is astringent, sour and distinctly bitter all at once."

This comic is about the author who grew up in Kerala, India and had a best friend Maya who was a year older and a foot taller than her and was her constant companion and one she played with all the time. Most of the playtime was spent around a gooseberry tree in Maya's backyard. And when it came time to making pickles, Maya's grandmother paid them to gather gooseberries for the recipe. Maya's grandmother was a special woman in that she allowed anyone to come into her front door not just certain people from certain castes or certain family members. She treated everyone equally. And her pickles were the best ever.

Now the author is pregnant and her baker husband has come across some gooseberries and has given them to her to make pickles of her own. She follows the recipe just like Maya's grandmother showed her all those years ago. But the pickles don't turn out to taste the same. So, her husband goes out and buys all the different jars of pickles he can find to find the perfect pickle for her and she finds the one that tastes just like her childhood.

Interspersed between the growth of the pickles is the story of how Maya had to move away and they lost touch. Also, how she moved away from home and took a job in another city which was fearful for her to do but she managed with the help of an older woman she rented a room from. The comic follows her life until she gets to London and meets the baker.

She decides to hunt down the owner of the pickles that she so loved and finds a surprise at the other end. Meanwhile, she is experiencing the worries of being a mother-to-be. This was a sweet comic that explores the bonds of marriage and friendship, especially friendship. The writing was beautiful and the drawing was quite lovely. I give it five out of five stars.

Quotes

Sometimes a little thing is all it takes for the mind to wander into long forgotten corners,

even to the most wilfully neglected ones. Before you realize it, little beads of memory begin to dance, taking centre stage in the present…that’s far removed from the past.

-Devi Menon (Amla Mater p 6-7) ( )

Amla Mater is a beautiful graphic novel about a young pregnant woman reminiscing of her childhood.

This is so beautiful. The graphics are stunning. Simple yet so affective. The story was touching and heartfelt. I loved all the memories of her early years and what triggers them. ( )

Amla Mater, the debut graphic novel of author Devi Menon, is a character-driven memoir of a young woman’s early life in India, a life she reminisces on as she prepares to give birth to her first child. Mili now lives in the U.K., far from her childhood home. It is a story of fate, of hope—that what is lost may yet be found again.

What I loved most about Amla Mater was the glimpse it gave me into day-to-day life in India, in all of its diversity. It dispels the idea that the country is one great monoculture.

It also reminded me of the most golden moments of my own childhood—the people, the smells, the tastes, the colors that are still so very vibrant in my own mind. I loved her image of memories as a string of beads, almost like a rosary, that can be touched and held between ones fingers as a tangible connection to our sweetest recollections.

What I wished for was a longer version of the story. I wanted the scenes to be dwelt on even longer, the stories to be given more detail, and for some loose ends to be tied up. There were some storylines that never resolved, and I wish they had.

I also looked for broader strokes in the drawings, pictures with a little more complexity. The simple drawings made the story feel simple, and maybe that was the purpose, but I had hoped for more.

This book did give me a burst of joy at its resolution, despite my desires for more, and I enjoyed the experience. ( )

Devi Menon's graphic novel Amla Mater is a sweet and surprisingly profound look at home and memory. Mili is an Indian girl now settled in London and married to a lovely local boy (The Baker), and as her pregnancy progresses she looks back to her childhood and early adulthood in India, and the friends and family she's left behind. The amla of the title is the fruit of the Indian gooseberry tree, and Mili tries to make amla pickle to try and bring back a little sense of home to her East London flat. The book is loosely structured around the latter weeks of her pregnancy (it ends just before she has the baby, as she is waiting for her mum and childhood friend to arrive in London in time for the birth), although the reminiscences of India, childhood, early days in London, and getting together with The Baker, are more free-flowing and random. The pictures are simple, but with unexpected depth. I'm not a big reader of graphic novels, but this was really lovely, a really impressive debut. I had a pdf copy of the book, and I think reading it on my ereader confirmed that I need to read graphic books in paper version to fully appreciate them, but this one was so good it managed to overcome that. ( )