The God of Small Things

Rahel and Estha are two-egg twins, born in Ayemenem in Kerala, and the novel opens with Rahel's return to the house at thirty-one, and with Estha, who has not spoken for years, sent back to it as well. Between the two moments lies a fortnight in 1969 whose events are given to the reader early and whose full weight is withheld until the end. Their mother Ammu is divorced and therefore an embarrassment; their great-aunt Baby Kochamma nurses an ancient thwarted love and a talent for cruelty; their uncle Chacko was at Oxford and runs the family pickle factory badly; and the family's English cousin Sophie Mol arrives for Christmas. Also present is Velutha, an untouchable carpenter, the twins' friend and Ammu's lover, in a state where the Communist Party is in office and caste is no less absolute for that. Roy writes in a coined, repeating, childlike English that makes the reader see through the twins' eyes, and constructs the whole novel around what she calls the Love Laws: who should be loved, and how, and how much. The result is dazzling and almost unbearably sad.