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Publication
HarperCollins (1998), Edition: Reprint, Paperback, 336 pages
Description
In 1969 in Kerala, India, Rahel and her twin brother, Estha, struggle to forge a childhood for themselves amid the destruction of their family life, as they discover that the entire world can be transformed in a single moment.
Media reviews
If Ms. Roy is sometimes overzealous in foreshadowing her characters' fate, resorting on occasion to darkly portentous clues, she proves remarkably adept at infusing her story with the inexorable momentum of tragedy. She writes near the beginning of the novel that in India, personal despair ''could
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never be desperate enough,'' that ''it was never important enough'' because ''worse things had happened'' and ''kept happening.'' Yet as rendered in this remarkable novel, the ''relative smallness'' of her characters' misfortunes remains both heartbreaking and indelible. Show Less
Subjects
Awards
Booker Prize (Longlist — 1997)
Dublin Literary Award (Longlist — 1999)
LA Times Book Prize (Finalist — 1997)
Whitcoulls Top 100 Books (92 — 2008)
Uncovered Classics (1997)
The Big Jubilee Read (1997 — 1992-2001)
Language
Physical description
336 p.; 8 inches
ISBN
0060977493 / 9780060977498