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
1 Paradise Pickles & Preserves
3 Big Man the Laltain, Small Man the Mombatti
8 Welcome Home, Our Sophie Mol
9 Mrs Pillai, Mrs Eapen, Mrs Rajagopalan
13 The Pessimist and the Optimist
1 Paradise Pickles & Preserves
May
