Chai Time At Cinnamon Gardens is the third novel by Australian author, Shankari Chandran. It won the 2023 Miles Franklin Award, and the audio version is narrated by Rachael Tidd. Some forty years after Maya Ali, her husband Zakhir and their twins, Anjali and Siddharth arrived in Sydney, Maya is herself resident in Cinnamon Gardens, the nursing home they restored together with their friend, Cedric Furholmen. It’s true that they now care for many Sri Lankan-born residents, but the mix of nationalities and faiths for whom they cater is quite diverse.

The residents enjoy a varied cuisine, partake of many different activities, and have the care and attention of dedicated staff sensitive to their needs and qualified medical professionals like their geriatrician, Nikki Barton. Since Zakhir disappeared, presumed dead back in Sri Lanka, over a decade earlier, Anjali has been the manager of the care facility.

And while they are not unfamiliar with some racism, of late the racially-motivated violence, attacks on both property and persons, seems to have escalated in the Westgrove area against those identifiably South Asian. One of the nursing home’s multi-skilled staff, Ruben has been the ongoing target of a trio of violent teens, and racist graffiti keeps appearing on the facility’s walls.

Meanwhile, Nikki’s husband, acting Councillor Gareth Barton for Westgrove City Council and loyal Democratic Alliance Party member, is discovering that his selection for the party in the upcoming elections is not a foregone conclusion: expensive data analysts have concluded that the area’s changing demographic means the electors like Gareth but won’t vote for him. What can he do to make himself more appealing to this changing community?

He and Nikki and their son Oscar are dealing with a heartbreaking loss, but it has split them apart rather than bringing them closer. Guilt and anger battle with grief, and when his life begins to fall apart on multiple levels, he fixates on an issue that sees him making what seems like a vexatious complaint which, in today’s social media obsessed world, quickly has far-reaching and tragic consequences.

Flashbacks to earlier times fill in the back stories: Maya describes Zakhir courtship of her in Jaffna, what led them to emigrate, and early days at Westgrove; Ruben details events in Sri Lanka during the colonisation and cultural seizure of the Tamil homeland by the Sri Lankan army; master gemologist Uncle Saha recalls the pogrom that cost the lives of many Tamils; and Anjali recalls her father’s passionate objection to colonialism.

There’s a parallel between Maya writing popular Australian-themed crime fiction under a pen name to fund the nursing home, and Chandran employing the Sydney Nursing Home setting to raise awareness of Tamil history and pique the interest of those who might not normally choose to read about it.

The story also explores refuge, opportunity, privilege and entitlement in relation to white populations and refugees. There are plenty of wise words and Chandran gives Nathan an insightful analogy about dealing with grief: “He’s reorienting his world - not to fill the void but to carry the void with him. Like trying to work out the best way to carry an awkward and heavy bag, he’s setting it against his body and then adjusting it so it’s easier to carry.” An informative, moving and thought-provoking read.