Nectar in a Sieve?

Question

is there a oil spill in the story? if not is there anything that has to do with oil in the story?

Answer 1

I'm not sure why questions about this novel keep ending up in the Botany section, but here's a plot summary:

Married to a poor farmer, Nathan, because it is convenient for her family, Rukmani must leave everything she has ever known and learn how to run a household by herself at the age of twelve. In a society where raising sons is her purpose in life, Rukmani finds that she can bear only a single daughter, Irawaddy. She seeks out the help of a local European doctor, Kenny, who is able to revive her fertility and allow her to have six sons. Meanwhile, a tannery is built in the village and begins to take over the land, the system of trading, and the way of life for the people who live there. Rukmani seems to be the only one who recognizes this as a danger, and stands alone in her protest against modernization. Her three oldest sons leave her to find a better life somewhere far away from their family. Then the next son is killed in a labor dispute at the tannery, serving only to magnify her hatred of everything associated with it. They enter a time of drought and famine, and Rukmani's youngest son Kuti comes close to starving. Irawaddy, rejected by her husband because she is barren, is forced to turn to prostitution to earn a little money so she can survive. One night Rukmani mistakes Irwaddy for Kunthi, a woman she hates in the village, and attacks her. Soon after, Kuti dies. Eventually, the tannery officials take over the land that Nathan and Rukmani have been living on for decades. With nowhere else to go, the couple travel by oxcart and on foot to a city, and after confusion learn that their son no longer lives there. Their money stolen, they work at a stone quarry. There Nathan dies and Rukmani returns to their other son in the village with nothing except a young boy, named Puli, they met in the city. After losing everything, she still grasps a thread of hope that there is something waiting for her even after death.

From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nectar_in_a...