The God of Small Things

A lush, devastating novel about forbidden love, family secrets, and the laws that determine who may love whom in Indian society.

Set in the beautiful, suffocating landscape of Kerala, India, The God of Small Things follows the fraternal twins Estha and Rahel as they return to their childhood home to confront the events that destroyed their family. Through their eyes, we witness the tragic consequences of a love affair that crossed the rigid boundaries of India's caste system.

Roy's prose is intoxicating—sensual, poetic, and alive with the sounds, smells, and colors of the Indian landscape. She captures the perspective of children with remarkable authenticity, showing how they absorb and process the adult world's contradictions and cruelties. The novel moves fluidly between past and present, gradually revealing the circumstances that led to a shocking act of violence.

At the heart of the story is Ammu, the twins' mother, whose brief affair with Velutha, an "untouchable" carpenter, violates every social convention of their community. The relationship is doomed from the start, not only by the vast social gulf between them but by the political tensions in Kerala, where communist organizing has disrupted traditional hierarchies without necessarily changing deep-seated prejudices.

The novel's title refers to the small, overlooked moments that shape our lives—the seemingly insignificant events that can have enormous consequences. Roy shows how personal choices intersect with larger political and social forces, how individual desires crash against systemic oppression. Roy's debut novel won the Booker Prize and established her as one of the most important voices in contemporary literature.