The novel in rich in colour and imagery which transports its readers to Ayemenem in May: ‘’The river shrinks and black crows gorge on bright mangoes in still, dust green trees. This book is a piece of art as it captures complexities of life through the eyes of children as their worlds collide with the adults.

All the relationships are realistically captured as the readers come to know the story of Chacko and his ex wife Margaret, the early love disillusionments of Baby Kochamma, the twins’ grand aunt, and the life of Pappachi, the twins’ grandfather. The readers get a view of the lives of a family trying to make sense of these situations, their community and their purpose. Roy makes powerful observations about the communist movement, the injustices of caste discrimination, gender inequality, colonialism, religion and politics.

The novel opens with a thirty year old Rahel returning to her house in Ayemenem to meet her brother Estha and she recalls the story of her life tracing events before and after the arrival of Sophie Mol. It is this event that lies at the heart of the novel and leads to circumstances that change the course of the small lives of Ayemenem. The seven year old twins are not concerned with the big things but anticipate the arrival of their nine year old English cousin Sophie Mol, the daughter of their uncle Chacko.

It is a simple story set against the backdrop of social discrimination, communism and the caste system revolving around the lives of the twins Rahel and Esthappen (Estha), the children of Ammu Ipe who grew up in 1960s in Ayemenem in a Keralite Syrian Christian family. Her powerful message about family, class and caste led to comparisons with William Faulkner, her acute observation of society told with understated emotion reminded readers of Charles Dickens, and her inexplicably poetical and magical words of Salman Rushdie and Gabriel Garcia Marquez. ‘The God of Small Things’ is about the Big Things of LifeĪrundhati Roy’s debut novel, The God of Small Things, the winner of the Booker Prize in 1997 is a modern-day classic. Booker Prize (1997), International Dublin Literary Award Nominee (1999)

The god of small things author