A Disobedient Girl

Jul 22, 2025 2:10 PM

Author:Ru Freeman

A Disobedient Girl

Since her days in the orphanage, Latha has been a companion and servant to Thara, a more fortunate girl her own age. But since her trip to the hill country when she caught her first glimpse of a rose, Latha has known she was destined for a better life. For now, she must watch silently as Thara receives all the luxuries Latha is denied, consoled only by the rose-scented soap stolen from the bathroom of her master's house.

Years and miles away, Biso, a desperate young mother, flees from her murderous husband, taking her children with her to the remote hills. As Biso and Latha journey towards their separate fates, struggling to hold on to their independence, each will betray the people they love, changing the course of their lives for ever.

A Disobedient Girl is an epic, heartbreaking novel about the linked destinies of two women, set against the backdrop of beautiful, politically turbulent Sri Lanka.

Reviews

Brilliant...very funny

—— Sunday Telegraph

A painful, funny, humane novel: beautifully written, addictively readable and so confident

—— The Times

Wry, warm-hearted and entertaining

—— Charlotte Moore , Telegraph

Unforgettable

—— Daily Express

A witty and subtle family drama

—— Independent on Sunday

Impossible to put down

—— Wall Street Journal

Delicious fun

—— New York Times

Moves with a swift comic logic . . . An innovative and imaginative and intricate plot . . .welds Wolfe's descriptions of dinner parties, restaurant games, Wall Street trading, and courthouse chaos into more than a tour de force

—— Time

Acerbically funny

—— Christina Koning , The Times

Still very funny and smartly written a good 20 years after it was first published

—— Colin Waters , Sunday Herald

Dense with research and bulging with bombast. Yet, it has to be admitted, it's also great fun

—— Hermione Hoby , Observer

I read this novel at the end of the 1980s when greed and excess were rife, and the merger barons were making loads of money. As someone working in the City, I loved how it perfectly captured the voraciously materialistic mood. Wolfe portrays his characters with wit and accuracy.

—— Madeleine Gore , Easy Living

A page-turner

—— Daily Express

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