The Rain of the Praying Mantis is an exploration, a journey, into the life of Kataryna who returns to a place which she loves and cherishes, her childhood ‘home’. Milan Kundera states that “[a] novel is a long piece of synthetic prose based on play with invented characters...Ironic essay, novelistic narrative, autobiographical fragment, historic fact, flight of fantasy: The synthetic power of the novel is capable of combining everything into a unified whole like the voices of polyphonic music.” (232) The Rain of the Praying Mantis is fragmented. It consists of pieces from the past, the present day-to-day occurrences, fairytales and the protagonist’s personal reflections. What keeps the fragments all in tune is the common exploration of the meaning of home, belonging, life and identity; all of which are complex and often contradictory notions.
[Note: the novel, The Rain of the Praying Mantis, is embargoed until 31 May 2015]
