The year is 1969. In the state of Kerala, on the southernmost tip of India, fraternal twins Esthappen and Rahel fashion a childhood for themselves in the shade of the wreck that is their family. Their lonely, lovely mother, Ammu, (who loves by night the man her children love by day), fled an abusive marriage to live with their blind grandmother, Mammachi (who plays Handel on her violin), their beloved uncle Chacko (Rhodes scholar, pickle baron, radical Marxist, bottom-pincher), and their enemy, Baby Kochamma (ex-nun and incumbent grandaunt). When Chacko's English ex-wife brings their daughter for a Christmas visit, the twins learn that things can change in a day that lives can twist into new, ugly shapes, even cease forever, beside their river...
"A banquet for all the senses", said Newsweek of this bestselling and Booker Prize-winning literary novel-a richly textured first book about the tragic decline of one family whose members suffer the terrible consequences of forbidden love.
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[May in Ayemenem is a hot, brooding moth]***
(Fourth Estate, 5 May 2004, first published 22 April 1997, 340 pages, bought from @AmazonUK, Set Text for an @OpenUniversity course)
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I fell completely in love with this book. It's a gorgeous piece of work, wonderfully written with rich, vivid and detailed prose, a true feast to get lost in and be absorbed by. The book tackles some pretty dark stuff but tackles this with a beauty and grace I've never come across before. The book uses a story within a story format, sort of. We open with a tragic death and the plot weaves backwards and forwards in time revealing the harrowing aftermath and the events that led to the tragedy. The storyline is non-linear and past/present/future is effortlessly woven together. I didn't get lost once because the book was such a pleasure to read. The plot is slow burning, with every little detail slowly revealed. I usually dislike slow-burner's but not this time. I adored this book.
