Arundhati
Roy, the 37-year-old Delhi based author of The God of Small Things is living
the dream of most first time novelists. She is the first entirely,
homegrown Indian writer to win the Booker Prize, Britain's most prestigious
literary award, the most coveted prizes in the English-speaking world.
When she finished the book, which took almost five years to write, she
hoped to get it published by a small publisher in her native land of India.
Fate thought differently. When she brought the manuscript to an Indian
editor he immediately loved the book and saw a marketing potential far
larger than Ms. Roy had hoped. Unlike most of the other well-known Indian
English language novelists, Roy was neither educated abroad, nor does she
live abroad. She has been born, brought up, and educated in India, she
works and
writes in India, and her novel is authentically Indian, as is her writing style. The editor contacted an agent in England, and now, rights to the book are now sold in 18 countries prior to publication, the book is available in 21 countries. The God of Small Things is a book that in all accuracy, can be said to have taken the publishing world by storm.
Plot: Set in Kerala, India, in 1969, it is the story of Rahel and her twin brother Estha, who learn that their whole world can change in a single day, that love and life can be lost in a moment. Armed only with the invincible innocence of children, they seek to craft a childhood for themselves amid the wreckage that constitutes their family. The God of Small Things tackles the small things people can talk about and the frightening big things that lurk behind the scenes