The God of Small Things
Roy's first novel, The God of Small Things, presents a conflict between the Touchables and Untouchables of India, which is also complicated by Communist influences in the mid-1900s. Estha and Rahel, twins raised by their divorced mother Ammu, tell most of the story, although they become two of the victims at the end.
Ammu's brother Chacko studied at Oxford in England and met Margaret there. They were married, but she divorced Chacko while pregnant with their first child because she didn't want to move to India. However, 12 years later she visited Chacko there while he was trying to run his mother's Paradise Pickles and Preserves business. His daughter, Sophie Mol, whom he meets for the first time, becomes a friend with Estha and Rahel, who were her same age.
Velutha is a young Untouchable with whom Ammu has an affair. She tries "To love by night the man her children loved by day." Estha and Rahel's grandmother recalled when "...untouchables were expected to crawl backwards with a broom, sweeping away their footprints..." Ammu and Velutha's daring relationship is finally blamed for the breakup of the Kochamma family.
What makes Roy's book unique is her unpredictable but affective writing style. One-word sentences abound. Any significant word is capitalized. And her graphic imagery demands the reader's closest attention. Time changes from past to future are frequent. And finally, most all the tragedies are mentioned, or hinted at, near the beginning of the book, but then explained more as the story unfolds.
The God of Small Things was published in 1997 and was the winner of the Booker Prize. Arundhati Roy has worked as a production designer in New Delhi and has written a number of screenplays for films.