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The God of Small Things
Arundhati Roy
The Asian literary phenomenon of the 90s.More magical than Mistry, more of a rollicking good read than Rushdie, more nerve-tinglingly imagined than Naipaul, here, perhaps, is the greatest Indian novel by a woman. Arundhati Roy has written an astonishingly rich, fertile novel, teeming with life, colour, heart-stopping language, wry comedy and a hint of magical realism.Set against a background of political turbulence in Kerala, Southern India, The God of Small Things tells the story of twins Esthappen and Rahel. Amongst the vats of banana jam and heaps of peppercorns in their grandmother’s factory, they try to craft a childhood for themselves amidst what constitutes their family – their lonely, lovely mother, their beloved Uncle Chacko (pickle baron, radical Marxist and bottom-pincher) and their avowed enemy Baby Kochamma (ex-nun and incumbent grand-aunt).
ARUNDHATI ROY
The God of Small Things
Copyright (#)
Fourth Estate
An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd. 1 London Bridge Street London SE1 9GF
www.harpercollins.co.uk (http://www.harpercollins.co.uk/)
This edition published by Fourth Estate 2009
First published in Great Britain by Flamingo 1997
Copyright © Arundhati Roy 1997
Arundhati Roy asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work
This is a work of fiction. The characters in it are all fictional. Liberties have been taken with the location of rivers, level crossings, churches and crematoria.
A catalogue record of this book is available from the British Library
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HarperCollinsPublishers has made every reasonable effort to ensure that any picture content and written content in this ebook has been included or removed in accordance with the contractual and technological constraints in operation at the time of publication
Source ISBN: 9780006550686
Ebook edition © May 2011 ISBN: 9780007383948 Version: 2018-08-13
Praise (#)
From the British reviews:
‘The God of Small Things vividly describes a landscape and society about which I knew nothing. Perceptive and imaginative, she is an authentic new voice.’
SHUSHA GUPPY, Independent on Saturday Books of Year
‘The great soaring masterpiece of 1997.’
WILLIAM DALRYMPLE, Sunday Times Books of the Year
‘Rich and compelling. Roy has a refreshing originality and desire to tell a good yarn that I found really appealing.’
WILL HUTTON, Observer Books of the Year
An intricate, clever, skilfully constructed story which overwhelms by its exuberance and its verbal virtuosity.’
PHILIP ZIEGLER, Daily Telegraph Books of the Year
‘An affecting and intricate story … written with amazing confidence.’
IAN JACK, Independent on Sunday Books of the Year
‘The God of Small Things is an ancient drama played out against an unmistakably modern backdrop. It turns the clash of tongues and histories in Kerala into the motor of its comedy, its lyricism and its fine intelligence. And in doing so, it makes the remarkable Arundhati Roy a fitting standard-bearer for the immensely rich literature of India today.’
BOYD TONKIN, Independent
‘A gripping tale of love and loss … in The God of Small Things, Roy has given us a novel moored in anguish but told with compelling wit, eroticism and consummate tenderness.’
UTTARA CHOUDHURY, Financial Times
‘A beautifully fractured tale … infused with luminous imagery, wry wit and butterfly-delicate characters.’
Esquire
‘A quite astonishing first novel by any standards—broad in its historical sweep, emotionally profound and marvellously acute and delicate.’
Economist
‘The God of Small Things draws the reader into a mesmerising world, conjured up in a lush, lyrical prose that sets the nerves tingling.’
SARAH STRICKLAND, Evening Standard
‘Roy is truly gifted, not just in her ability to make words playful and meaning mischievous, but to use this to create a language texture that bowls you along, gathering momentum like the narrative itself … Witty and vivid, full of rich, memorable images … a verbal stream of steady beauty.’
ALI SMITH, Scotsman
‘The God of Small Things is a magically written effort … quite brilliant. Savvy, beautiful, and with the sort of overall rhythm that artists of all media should dream of managing … One can only strongly recommend this extremely funny and enchanting and pretty much genius piece of debut fiction.’
TOM HINEY, Spectator
From the US and Australian reviews:
‘The quality of Ms Roy’s narration is so extraordinary—at once so morally strenuous and so imaginatively supple—that the reader remains enthralled all the way to its agonising finish. A devastating first novel.’
ALICE TRUAX, New York Times Book Review
‘Roy is impressively adept with language. Words and images flip across the pages like acrobats, combining and contorting in unexpected ways. Not only is the story rich and compelling, but the inventive energy and honour with which it is told keep the reader constantly surprised and captivated.’
TAMSIN TODD, Washington Post
‘A tantalising mix of Indian exotica, mysticism and history on a domestic and national level … a remarkably assured novel, ambitious in scope, innovative in style, filled with moments of quiet beauty … its wonders and wonderings are, for me, unparalleled.’
BETH YAHP, The Australian
‘After you turn the last page [of this] glowing first novel, you find you’re still deep inside it. You can smell the pickled mangoes and the sweet banana jam, hear the children singing as their uncle’s car carries them home to disaster. The details don’t fall into place until the end of the book but making our way there, we move through such a landscape of sensory imagery that we seem to have lived the tragedy long before we can understand it. An outstanding novel.’
LAURA SHAPIRO, Newsweek
‘The God of Small Things offers such magic, mystery and sadness that, literally, this reader turned the last page and decided to reread it. Immediately. It’s that hauntingly wonderful.’
DEIRDRE DONAHUE, USA Today
‘A stunning first novel, this book is sure to send ripples—and even stir up waves—for a long time to come.’
ANDERSON TEPPER, Time Out New York
‘The God of Small Things is lush and humid with a tropic density of language … a compelling novel from an energetic writer of real power.’
JANET CHIMONYO, Canberra Times
From the Indian reviews:
‘Roy handles the shifting surfaces of past and present with extraordinary fineness and delicacy, producing a controlled, intricate narrative structure through which the themes of love, spite, betrayal, hatred and guilt run like a spider’s web. A remarkable achievement.’
SUPRIYA CHAUDHURI, Asian Age
‘The God of Small Things has it all: the echoes, calls and the cries of the Earth. But more importantly, an intellectual daring. This … is not just an extraordinary novel, but an uncoiling spring of human foreboding and inevitability. It’s quite simply unbeatable.’
RAJGOPAL NIDAMBOOR, Sunday Observer
‘A sad story, told very hilariously, very tenderly and very craftily.’
PAUL ZACHARIA, The Pioneer
‘The poetic intensity of Roy’s prose, her dynamic energy, her capacity to touch the combined strain of high jinks and pathos in childish humour, her presentation of characters through the children’s disturbing perspective have a function beyond that of holding the reader to the narrative. They create within the framework of Rahel’s desolation the magic of prelapsarian Eden, and make the fall from innocence doubly poignant.’
BHASWATI CHAKRAVORTY, The Telegraph (Calcutta)
‘A work of unusual range and depth and feeling, all the more remarkable for finding expression in a first novel. It is so well-paced, evocative and densely-plotted that it sustains the tension and tautness of a thriller. ’
SUNIL SETHI, Outlook
‘Arundhati Roy has stretched language and imagination to recreate the fun-filled, magical yet anguished world of childhood with poignant simplicity, directness and wit.’
MARIA COUTO, Frontline
For Mary Roy who grew me up.
Who taught me to say ‘excuse me’ before interrupting her in Public. Who loved me enough to let me go.
For LKC, who, like me, survived.
Never again will a single story be told as though it’s the only one.
JOHN BERGER
Contents
Cover (#ued83e675-1FFF-11e9-9e03-0cc47a520474)
Title Page (#ued83e675-2FFF-11e9-9e03-0cc47a520474)
Copyright (#ued83e675-3FFF-11e9-9e03-0cc47a520474)
Praise (#ued83e675-6FFF-11e9-9e03-0cc47a520474)
1 Paradise Pickles & Preserves (#ued83e675-10FF-11e9-9e03-0cc47a520474)
2 Pappachi’s Moth (#ued83e675-12FF-11e9-9e03-0cc47a520474)
3 Big Man the Laltain, Small Man the Mombatti (#litres_trial_promo)
4 Abhilash Talkies (#litres_trial_promo)
5 God’s Own Country (#litres_trial_promo)
6 Cochin Kangaroos (#litres_trial_promo)
7 Wisdom Exercise Notebooks (#litres_trial_promo)
8 Welcome Home, Our Sophie Mol (#litres_trial_promo)
9 Mrs Pillai, Mrs Eapen, Mrs Rajagopalan (#litres_trial_promo)
10 The River in the Boat (#litres_trial_promo)
11 The God of Small Things (#litres_trial_promo)
12 Kochu Thomban (#litres_trial_promo)
13 The Pessimist and the Optimist (#litres_trial_promo)
14 Work is Struggle (#litres_trial_promo)
15 The Crossing (#litres_trial_promo)
16 A Few Hours Later (#litres_trial_promo)
17 Cochin Harbour Terminus (#litres_trial_promo)
18 The History House (#litres_trial_promo)
