- Genre: Novel
- Number of pages: 339
- Literature: Indian
- Published on: April 4, 1997
- Awards:The Booker Prize (1997), National Film Award for Best Screenplay (2012) and
New York Times Notable Book of the Year (1997)
“When you hurt people, they begin to love you less. That’s what careless words do. They make people love you a little less”.
I heard a lot about this book so as it’s author, Arundhati Roy, and obviously you don’t need any other reason when the book is a winner of the National Booker Prize in 1997.
The writing of Arundhati Roy is just inventive and creative in the contemporary era; she had narrated the story with unexpected metaphors and daily life analogies, and I think that’s what makes her writing distinctive yet unique enough to win the national booker prize.
The story of the book revolves around twin Esthappan and Rahel, their traumatic childhood, and their reunion almost after living decades apart. It starts in the small village of Ayemen in Kerala, where Author uncovered dynamics of many of the relationships and is a complete family tale.The twins live in Ayemen with their single mother Amu, where they are unwanted by every other person in the family except their mother.They learn a horrific truth about life at a very young age and get blamed for every misfortune that happened in their lives. Ammu Ipe, their mother, marries Baba and returns to Ayemenem after leaving her abusive husband. Chacko, Ammu’s brother, returns from England after his divorce. The family includes their blind grandmonther , mamachi and Baby Kochamma, their grandfather’s sister who remains unmarried.The Margaret , Chacko’s divorced wife was invited to live in Ayemenen with her 10 years old daughter Sophie after her second husband’s car accidentally death.
The Author had crafted all these complicated characters beautifully and successfully brought out complexities of each of the character very well. The twist in the story added when Velutha, an untouchable servant who works for the family’s pickle factory develop a bond with Velutha, while twins mother Ammu is romantically drawn towards him. Velutha faces tragedy due to his caste and his relationship with Ammu. His own father being a loyal servant, exposes Ammu’s and Velutha’s relationship in front of Mammachi and Baby Kochamma where he himself thinks that his son had commited a grave mistake. Later, Ammu is locked up, and Velutha is banished for the sin. Ammu blames the twins for her difficult situation. The kids then flee with their cousin Sophie to the river. Their boat capsizes and Sophie drowns; Margaret and Chacko return to find Sophie dead on the sofa.
Baby Kochamma accuses Velutha of Sophie’s death, leading to his brutal beating and arrest by the police. The twins witness this traumatic event. The chief of police, aware of Velutha’s Communist ties, fears unreal if the wrongful arrest is exposed. He threatens Baby Kochamma for falsely accusing Velutha. To save herself, Baby Kochamma manipulates Estha and Rahel into implicating Velutha in Sophie’s murder. Velutha dies from his injuries. Despite Ammu’s attempts to tell the truth, Baby Kochamma convinces Chacko that Ammu and the twins are responsible for Sophie’s death. Chacko expels Ammu from the house, separating Estha from her forever. Ammu dies alone in a motel at 31. Rahel moves to America for university but returns to Ayemenem after a tumultuous life. She reunites with Estha, who has lived a solitary, mute existence with Baby Kochamma. They have sex. Despite their reunion, their lives remain sorrowful. The novel concludes with a reflection on Ammu and Velutha’s love affair.
The author has shed light on the old caste system and described how some sets of castes were considered untouchables.The novel is a reminder to us at every stage that our lives are not really in our hands. How life’s small decisions and experiences take unexpected twists and turns to make this story heart touching and heart wrenching at the same time.
Suzanna Arundhati Roy (born 24 November 1961) is an Indian author best known for her novel The God of Small Things(1997), which won the Booker Prize for Fiction in 1997 and became the best-selling book by a non-expatriate Indian author.She is also a political activist involved in human rights and environmental causes.She was the winner of the 2024 PEN Pinter Prize, given by English PEN, and she named imprisoned British-Egyptian writer and activist Alaa Abd El-Fattah as the “Writer of Courage” with whom she chose to share the award .
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