Though Manisha Jolie Amin was born in Kenya and raised in Australia, her family was originally from India. As a child, she spent hours listening to her mother's stories of their native homeland, often accompanied by the sounds of a bamboo flute played by her father. Those treasured memories provide the basis for Amin's debut novel, Dancing to the Flute.
A young and abandoned boy named Kalu struggles to find food and shelter in a fictional village in India. Blessed with intelligence and charm, Kalu manages to survive, but also finds solace in the company of friends: Bal (the buffalo herder), Malti (a servant girl) and Ganga Ba (Malti's employer). Just as a serious foot infection threatens his existence, Kalu's softly blown notes through a rolled banyan tree leaf are heard by a traveling stranger. In exchange for healing his foot, the traveler arranges for Kalu to live and study with his brother, a renowned flutist. As Kalu grows into a true musician, he also learns how to sleep peacefully under a roof, to trust in the kindness of his new family and to maintain long-distance relationships with his village friends.
Amin deftly weaves Kalu's story with a smattering of Indian fables, myths and legends, carefully chronicling her main character's growth from boy into man alongside his evolution as a flutist. Amin's lyrical writing style suits the musical themes of the novel, and her descriptive gifts allow the reader to see, smell and hear all that Kalu and his friends experience on the page. --Roni K. Devlin, owner, Literary Life Bookstore