My Goodreads and Amazon review of Have You Eaten Rice Today? by Apple Gidley (Rating 5) – Complex and Captivating. Apple Gidley’s novel, Have You Eaten Rice Today?, weaves history, adventure, and romance into one captivating tale. Underlying the drama is a lesson in Malaysia’s fight for independence, a bloody struggle that most westerners know little about. Readers are immersed in the enervating heat and ever-present buzz of the ulu, the jungle, then dropped into the cool elegance of Britain’s colonial outposts. It is at one of these establishments that Simon, a former British soldier and now cool intelligence gatherer, meets Dee, a young and feisty Australian nurse, igniting a spark that decades and oceans apart cannot cool. Two generations later we meet Max, Simon’s adoring grandson, an aspiring writer, and Jessica, Dee’s granddaughter, an emergency room physician and her grandmother’s temperamental match. What happens next (no spoilers) is a physically and emotionally challenging journey as inevitable as the promise of redemption. A writer of historical fiction myself (see my Amazon author page and Goodreads author page), I admire Gidley’s ability to blend fact and invention in just the right proportions. Have You Eaten Rice Today? transports readers to another time and place. Required carry-on: Minds and hearts.
