Maya Wise is alone in Hong Kong. British rule is coming to an end and so is Maya's marriage. She drifts, wandering aimlessly through the crowded city streets. Captivated by an elderly Chinese man, and his caged nightingale, she follows him home. But Ken Tiger is a man with a past. As Maya draws out his tale of lost love in wartime Shanghai, she pieces together other stories, other histories that will help her to imagine a new life for herself. Alice Nelson was voted the "Best Young Australian Novelist of 2009".

This beautifully portrayed epic family history spans one hundred years, from the 1890s during the later stages of the Qing Dynasty to the 1990s, traversing the experiences of five generations of women. Yu is the central character, whose life story is woven through the lives of her grandmother, mother, sisters, and niece. She loves her parents but at a tender age realizes they do not love her. After committing two unforgivable sins, she is sent away to live in the city but is soon abandoned. Yu's life becomes a quest for love; she is fragile but resilient, lonely but determined. Now, in the 1980s, Yu becomes caught up in the political storm and comes close to love but falls short. Her last chance at getting what she desires will ultimately come at a tragic cost.

Pichaikuppan, a precocious child, grows up to be master of three Vedas, of ritual and severe penance, and a seeker of inner silence and Truth, like his forefathers. Triumphant in his efforts, and after many symbolic deaths, he becomes one with the ocean of silence. The Silent One, an embodiment of love, beyond power, passion and skill, forms the leitmotif around which the myriad stories in this novel are woven. He is born again and again in the seemingly anonymous people in these tales: Peasants toiling in the dust rebuild their village swept away by floods, and live forever in peace; wood carriers, carrying huge loads on their backs marked with whiplash, gain the succour of Maruthorammai, their tribal mother in her haven in the mountain forests; and a debauched king cries for help and is rescued from quicksand.

Each narrative reaffirms the ageless bonds of father and son, mother and family, master and pupil, man and woman, and points to the same cherished yearning for inner quietude, for love and harmony with the world.

1967. Vietnam. Susan Gifford is one of the first female correspondents on assignment in Saigon, dedicated to her job and passionately in love with an American TV reporter. Son is a Vietnamese photographer anxious to get his work into the American press. Together they cover every aspect of the war from combat missions to the workings of field hospitals. Then one November morning, narrowly escaping death during an ambush, they find themselves the prisoners of three Vietcong soldiers who have been separated from their unit.

With the lush prose, vividly rendered settings, complex and appealing characters, and compelling narratives, the stories that comprise In the Convent of Little Flowers illuminate the lives of Indians at home and abroad today, where modernity offers them opportunities that their grandmothers only dreamed of, while others experience just as much oppression as ever. Indu Sundaresan brings together stories that both embrace and reject modern values with an authenticity that only a writer of her caliber could do.