Summary of "The God of Small Things"

Estha and Rahel are twins, not siamese twins, but somehow their minds are connected to one another, and they are often seen as one person. The twins grow up in an Indian family without their father, but with a loving mother. Their mother sometimes gets upset with them - like any other mother would - when they do not behave. What she doesn't realize, however, is how her sometimes mean words make her children feel.

The 31 year old Rahel returns to her family home in Ayemenem to see her brother Estha. Her brother doesn't talk and Rahel herself feels emty inside. The author is gradually filling in the story behind it all. Through flashbacks she is telling a story about what happened in the family when Estha and Rahel were young. Horrible memories are revealed, like the smarmy soda salesman selling yellow, sweet sodas; Sophie Mol's death; and the forbidden love with an untouchable.

Arundhati Roy's writing is unique and beautiful and she bends and experiments with the language, for example: "Margaret Kochamma told her to Stoppit. So she stoppited." This is Roy's debut novel and it won the Man Booker Prize in 1997. The God of Small Things is a book that can be difficult to get through if you are not an experienced reader. If so, I recommend the audio version.

Book Summaries

Fiction
Health
Psychology
Biography
Awards

Book Awards

Man Booker Prize
Nobel Prize
Pulitzer Prize