Eve out of Her Ruins is an absolutely beautiful book and utterly heartbreaking. It is not often that I cry when reading books, but this one clenched around my heart and brought several tears to my eyes.

Set in Mauritius the book follows four young teenagers in a run-down area of Port-Louis dealing with the prospects of a lack of future and the harsh realities of the world around them.

Eve herself is the fiercest of the characters, she is defiant and yet fragile. Her struggles and her story really broke my heart.

The way in which Ananda Devi writes is utterly beautiful and brilliant. Through Eve she examines femininity and the body, the destruction of the body, how men take from women and the power they can exert over women. Devi does not shy away from discussions of brutality, of abuse, of violence, and ultimately rape but the beautiful prose does make the reading experience bearable and heartbreaking.

This book is undoubtedly heavy and full of sadness, but it also had sparks of beauty. The moments of affection between Eve and Savita. The loyalty and the protectiveness the two young women felt towards each other. The realisation Clélio had about his future and about his brother, his drive to escape for a better future. The struggles of Saad to defy the gangs, to express his feelings in poetry.

For such a short novel, this book really blew me away and has left me feeling a little bereft by the end of the experience. One that is definitely going to stay with me for a long while.