In The Shadow Of The Banyan

Raami is a young Cambodian girl who is seven years old when Phnom Penh falls to the Khmer Rouge, ushering in the Cambodian genocide. Based on Ratner herself, she is particularly vulnerable due to her father’s status as a minor prince. At the start of the novel, Raami is far closer to Papa than to Mama, whom she views as a distant parent who favors her sister Radana. This is in part due to the mistaken assumption that Raami’s childhood polio, which leaves her legs disfigured, causes Mama to see her as damaged and never capable of being as beautiful as her mother.

In Papa, she sees an all-powerful protector who is able to shield her from the depredations of the Khmer Rouge, if not always literally then at least in spirit. Both before and after his death, Raami draws on his stories as a way to maintain hope in the face of almost-certain death and to remain tethered to his memory.

Raami’s relationship with Mama is more complex yet also more dynamic. After Papa’s death, which comes in part as a result of Raami’s actions, Raami can sense that Mama blames her. These feelings of guilt bubble over after Raami fails to protect Radana from a swarm of mosquitoes in an attack that eventually leads to a bout of fatal malaria.