Evening is the Whole Day by Preeta Samarasan poignantly narrates the story of social inequality, traumatic incidents within the family, and the scars of colonialism, all interwoven into the events occurring within a single Tamil family. Through the eyes of Chellam, the servant of this family, and the Rajasekhar household, Samarasan paints an apt picture of how class and ethnic tensions run deep in Malaysia.

It is, however, heartbreaking and infuriating to find the plight of Chellam-the injustices that are doled out to domestic workers whose fates are relegated to invisibility. Those scenes where Chellam gets dismissed and cast outside the family home, the bond of family, did feel very evocative in raising empathy and putting a flush on one's face as to the realities of social hierarchies. Samarasan tells the story of Chellam with great skill, mirroring parallel issues in society about how the historical legacy of colonialism shapes the power dynamics in modern Malaysian society.

This is in strong contrast to the rich description of the Malaysian landscape, which poignantly heightens the tension between beauty and suffering all that much more. Samarasan's non-linear narrative structure, shifting between different perspectives, allows the reader to uncover the hidden traumas and injustices little by little.

Ultimately, *Evening is the Whole Day* forces readers to confront the fact that inequality does persist, and how personal and national histories interplay in ways that determine identity and relationships. It is a profound statement on resilience needed to put up with and fight the injustices of the system.