APSARA

A dancing girl weathers exile, palace intrigues, and horrendous childbirths on her way to becoming queen of Cambodia in this historical romance.

Whitfield sets her engrossing novel in the late 12th and early 13th centuries, when Kampuchea under the historical King Jayavarman VII encompassed Cambodia and much of Laos, Vietnam, and Thailand. Centering the story is Preah Chan Bopha, a peasant girl who is a prodigy of Apsara, a dance form with stately footwork and intricate hand gestures. Recruited for the royal dance troupe, Bopha is whisked off to Apsara school in the capital Angkor just months before her family is killed by foreign invaders. After years of studying, performing, and swooning over the handsome king, she is summoned to the palace to become Jayavarman’s lover and, eventually, he promises, his fourth wife. Unfortunately, Jayavarman takes offense at a stray remark of hers and exiles her to a village. There, a hellish pregnancy culminates in an agonizing delivery in the middle of a thunderstorm during which a falling tree crushes her house. Mother and twin boys pull through thanks to a midwife and the Hindu eagle god Garuda, whose voice reassures Bopha in times of trouble. A contrite Jayavarman recalls her to Angkor for a wedding in which she parades to the altar atop an elephant. But Queen Bopha faces more challenges, including the enmity of the senior queen and an attempt on the king’s life. Whitfield’s well-observed portrait of medieval Khmer culture explores everything from cuisine—staples include dried fish and crickets—to the brusque funerals in which the deceased is tossed into a ravine and devoured by vultures. But there’s also a universality to Bopha’s experiences: grieving loved ones; discovering sex and motherhood; learning to assert herself in a man’s world. Whitfield conveys all this in limpid prose that conjures poetic insights out of simple details. (“I only saw my mother smile once….The rice was boiling and she moved it to where the coals weren’t so hot. Then she just squatted there, her face soft. She was far, far away. Then, I saw it. She smiled. It lit up her face….Maybe she had been beautiful at one time, before marriage, before children.”) The result is a nice blend of striking setting and resonant pathos.

A captivating tale of survival and love full of rich period details.