I've wanted this book to be the first to be reviewed in English. It contains an AMAZING story of love, betrayal, Untouchables, innocense, and revenge. It's so well-written that it 's one of the few books I've read more than once.
It narrates the story of the twins Estha (boy) and Rahel (girl) and what happened in 1969 in a couple of days during the visit of their cousin Sophie Mol and a tragedy that involved them all.
However, it is more than just that. When we start reading, we find adult Estha and Rahel returning to Ayemenem after twenty years. We soon realise that a catastrophic event has shaped their lives, making both of them unable to fulfil their lives in any possible way.
The writer, then, takes us to the twins childhood, displaying their family: mother Ammu, father Baba (absent), uncle Chacko, grand-aunt Baby Kochamma, and a servant called Velutha, much loved by the children.
This narrative becomes complex as the author moves the readers from the present to the past (even in the same paragraph), having an active role in the building of the story. You also have to take into account the historical background that Roy offers, helping us to have a paronamic view of the events and their causes & consequences.
I know it sounds like a challenge. However, it's not an impossible one and when you star connecting the hints and clues the writer provides, you begin to understand a reality very far away from your own. You also comprehend why Estha became completly silent, why Rahel was expelled from three schools in a row, why they didn't reject their punishment, but they asked for a punishment that they could endure, for a punishment equal to their transgression.
Read it and enjoy it! You are going to discover why this book won The Man Booker Prize and became a classic, placing Arundathi Roy's next to Faulkner's and Dicken's work.
Ana Ovejero
mail: ana.ovejero@gmail.com
instagram:ananbooks
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