Winner of the Booker Prize 1997.

'They all broke the rules. They all crossed into forbidden territory. They all tampered with the laws that lay down who should be loved, and how. And how much.'

This is the story of Rahel and Estha, twins growing up among the banana vats and peppercorns of their blind grandmother's factory, and amid scenes of political turbulence in Kerala. Armed only with the innocence of youth, they fashion a childhood in the shade of the wreck that is their family: their lonely, lovely mother, their beloved Uncle Chacko (pickle baron, radical Marxist, bottom-pincher) and their sworn enemy, Baby Kochamma (ex-nun, incumbent grand-aunt).

Arundhati Roy's Booker Prize-winning novel was the literary sensation of the 1990s: a story anchored to anguish but fuelled by wit and magic.

The story is set mainly in Kerala, India, in 1969.

TRIGGER WARNINGS:
Child death
Domestic abuse
Drowning
Incest
Pedophilia
Sexual abuse
Verbal abuse
Violence

I am very interested in India, and try to read more book set in India and/or about Indian culture(s). That's one of the reasons I got this book in the first place. (I think it was either given to me by a friend or bought second hand).

This was such an interesting and good read! But it was also in some ways a hard read. Though beautifully written, the hard life of the characters in the book, the abuse, and the violence, are not easy things to read about. I am very happy I read it, though.

Left on the OBCZ shelf.