The God of Small Things

The God of Small Things is a family drama novel

The God of Small Things
written by Indian writer Arundhati Roy. It is a story
about the childhood experiences of fraternal twins
whose lives are destroyed by the "Love Laws"
prevalent in the 1960s Kerala, India. The novel
explores how small, seemingly insignificant
occurrences, decisions and experiences shape people's
behavior in deeply significant ways. The novel also
explores the lingering effects of casteism in India,
lending a culturally specific critique of British
colonialism in India. It won the Booker Prize in 1997.

The God of Small Things was Roy's debut novel,

published in 1997. It was followed by the 2017
publication The Ministry of Utmost Happiness twenty
years later. Roy began writing the manuscript for The
God of Small Things in 1992 and finished four years
later, in 1996, leading to its publication the following
year. The potential of the story was first recognized by
HarperCollins editor Pankaj Mishra, who sent it to First edition
three British publishers. Roy received a £500,000 Author Arundhati Roy
advance, and rights to the book were sold in 21 Cover artist Sanjeev Saith (http://www.gran
countries. ta.com/Contributors/Sanjeev-S
aith)
Language English
Background Genre Novel
Publisher Random House (USA)
Random House of Canada
Inspiration
(Canada)
Arundhati Roy, after being involved with making films HarperCollins (UK)
and writing screenplays, popularly In Which Annie RST IndiaInk & Penguin Books
Gives It Those Ones and Electric Moon, "wanted to do (India)
something where I didn't have to deal with people; I
Publication 15 March 1997
wanted to do something alone." She bought a computer date
and soon figured out how to use it. She noted she didn't
Publication India
know she was writing a novel.[1] Roy took inspiration
place
from her childhood experiences in Aymanam, a village
Media type Print (hardback & paperback)
in the Kottayam district of Kerala, India, where she led
an unprotected child's life. Being an "adult child", Roy Awards Booker Prize (1997)
ISBN 0-06-097749-3
observed and remembered what she sensed in the OCLC 37864514 (https://www.worldca
village and "said everything I wanted to say at that t.org/oclc/37864514)
point of time" through writing the novel.[2][3][1] Followed by The Ministry of Utmost
Happiness (2017)

Writing
She began writing her first novel on her computer in 1992, though the first
few months she "was just fooling around before I realized what was
happening and got down to writing the book properly" and completed it in
1996.[1][4][5] Without a plan, she enjoyed that her writing "kept surprising"
her and was unsure if she would ever finish it.[1] She "wrote it out of
sequence. I didn't start with the first chapter or end with the last chapter. I
actually started writing with a single image in my head: the sky blue
Plymouth with two twins inside it, a Marxist procession surrounding it.
And it just developed from there. The language just started weaving
together, sentence by sentence."[6] Roy stated that she never re-wrote a
written sentence in the novel and arranging the plot took time "but was
never painful."[7] Roy said that the novel is semi-autobiographical. For
Arundhati Roy
instance, she modelled some of her characters from those she knew.[8]
Roy's mother Mary Roy confirmed she was very similar to the character
Ammu, however, she was never involved with a man of lower caste, as was the case in the book is
another instance.[9]

Training as an architect influenced her writing, as writing the novel was "about design" and "like
architecture". She told Salon in 1997:

"In buildings, there are design motifs that occur again and again, that repeat— patterns, curves.
These motifs help us feel comfortable in a physical space. And the same works in writing, I've
found. For me, the way words, punctuation and paragraphs fall on the page is important as well
— the graphic design of the language. That was why the words and thoughts of Estha and
Rahel, the twins, were so playful on the page... I was being creative with their design. Words
were broken apart, and then sometimes fused together. 'Later' became 'Lay. Ter.' 'An owl'
became 'A Nowl.' 'Sour metal smell' became 'sourmetal smell.'"[6]

Title
The title of the novel was conceived at "the very last minute" while printing out the manuscript. Speaking
to HarperCollins, she said: "One of the chapters was called The God of Small Things, I don't know how
that happened, ... When I read the book now I can't believe the amount of references there are to small
things, but it was absolutely not the case that I started with the title and built the novel around it."[1]

Plot
The story is set in Ayemenem, Kerala, with a disjointed narrative shifting between 1969 and 1993. Rahel
and Estha, fraternal twins, reunite in 1993. Ammu Ipe, their mother, marries Baba to escape her father
and returns to Ayemenem after leaving her abusive husband. Chacko, Ammu's brother, returns from
England after his divorce. The family home includes Baby Kochamma, Pappachi's sister, who remained
unmarried due to unrequited love. She manipulates events to cause misfortune.

The death of Margaret's second husband in a car accident prompts Chacko to invite her and their
daughter, Sophie, to spend Christmas in Ayemenem. On the road to the airport, the family encounters a
group of Communist protesters who surround the car and humiliate Baby Kochamma. Rahel thinks she
sees amongst the protesters Velutha, an Untouchable servant who works for the family's pickle factory.
Later at the theater, Estha is sexually molested by the "Orangedrink Lemondrink Man", a vendor working
at the snack counter. Rahel's claim of seeing Velutha in the Communist mob leads Baby Kochamma to
associate him with her humiliation. Rahel and Estha develop a bond with Velutha, while Ammu is drawn
to him, sparking a forbidden romance. Velutha is depicted as sympathetic but faces tragedy due to his
caste and relationship with Ammu. When Velutha's father exposes their affair, Ammu is locked up, and
Velutha is banished. Ammu blames the twins for her plight, leading them to flee with their cousin Sophie.
Their boat capsizes and Sophie drowns; Margaret and Chacko return to find Sophie dead on the sofa.

It didn't matter that the story had begun, because Kathakali discovered long ago that the secret
of the Great Stories is that they have no secrets. The Great Stories are the ones you have heard
and want to hear again. The ones you can enter anywhere and inhabit comfortably. They don't
deceive you with thrills and trick endings.

— The God of Small Things

Baby Kochamma accuses Velutha of Sophie's death, leading to his brutal beating and arrest by the police.
The twins witness this traumatic event. The chief of police, aware of Velutha's Communist ties, fears
unrest if the wrongful arrest is exposed. He threatens Baby Kochamma for falsely accusing Velutha. To
save herself, Baby Kochamma manipulates Estha and Rahel into implicating Velutha in Sophie's murder.
Velutha dies from his injuries. Despite Ammu's attempts to tell the truth, Baby Kochamma convinces
Chacko that Ammu and the twins are responsible for Sophie's death. Chacko ejects Ammu from the
house, separating Estha from her forever. Ammu dies alone in a motel at 31. Rahel moves to America to
attend university but returns to Ayemenem after a tumultuous life. She reunites with Estha, who has lived
a solitary, mute existence with Baby Kochamma. They have sex. Despite their reunion, their lives remain
sorrowful. The novel concludes with a reflection on Ammu's and Velutha's love affair.

Characters

Major Characters
Estha, the male protagonist of the novel; Rahel's twin brother, a serious, intelligent and
somewhat nervous child, who experiences trauma leading to his silence, chosen by Baby
Kochamma to accuse Velutha, deeply connected to his sister despite separation.
Rahel, the female protagonist of the novel; Estha's younger sister by 18 minutes, a partial
narrator characterized as intelligent and impulsive, grappling with social discomfort and
 treated as lesser than her brother, later becoming something of a drifter, training as an
architectural draftsman and experiencing a failed relationship with an American.
Ammu, the twins' strict mother, who marries an alcoholic to escape from home, divorces
him due to violence, and has a cataclysmic affair with Velutha, causing her children to fear
losing her love.
Velutha, a smart Paravan caste carpenter at the Ipe family's pickle factory, deeply involved
in the local Communist movement, has a forbidden affair with Ammu and faces brutal
punishment, with a paralyzed brother named Kuttapen.
Chacko, Estha's and Rahel's maternal uncle, who meets Margaret at Oxford, marries her
and has a daughter, Sophie, whose death is pivotal to the story.
Baby Kochamma (named Navomi Ipe), the antagonist of the novel; the twins' maternal
great aunt, educated and embittered, harboring unrequited love for an Irish Catholic priest
and spite for her niece's children, condemning them to misery.

Supporting Characters
Sophie Mol, only daughter of Chacko and Margaret Kochamma, but raised by Margaret and
stepfather Joe. She is Estha's and Rahel's half-British cousin. After Joe dies, she and
Margaret return to Ayemenem. The twins befriend her for a short period before her death.
Her visit and her tragic drowning define the pivotal events in the novel.
Margaret Kochamma, Sophie Mol's English mother and Chacko's ex-wife. She is a
waitress at a cafe when Chacko first meets her. She divorces Chacko shortly after Sophie
Mol is born as he is lazy. She falls in love with Joe, and after Joe dies, she and Sophie Mol
return to Ayemenem which is eventually regretted after Sophie Mol died.
Mammachi (named Soshamma Ipe), the twins' grandmother and mother of Ammu and
Chacko. She is a hard-working, strict and reserved woman who started Paradise Pickles &
Preserves, a pickle factory all by herself. She was partially blind when the twins came to
Ayemenem. Before Chacko intervened, she suffered domestic abuse from Pappachi who
would always beat her.
Pappachi (named Shri Benaan John Ipe), Rahel's and Estha's late grandfather, an
Imperial Entomologist at Pusa Institute in Delhi, he discovers a new species of moth but
grew bitter when no moth species he discovered is named after him. He would beat
Mammachi with a brass vase every night until Chacko told him to stop. After that, he buys
himself a blue Plymouth that he doesn’t allow anyone to drive.
Kochu Maria, a servant and cook who lives in the Ayemenem House and usually watches
television all day with Baby Kochamma.
Baba, the twins' absent father and ex-husband of Ammu. He is a tea estate assistant
manager in Assam. After Ammu marries Baba, she learns that he is an alcoholic and an
uncontrollable liar and later grows abusive. Ammu leaves him with the children due to his
alcoholism and when he tries to give Ammu to his boss.
Vellya Paapen, Velutha's father, was on good terms with Mammachi and her family and is
grateful to her because she bought him a glass eye when he lost his left eye in an accident.
He witnessed Velutha's illicit affair with Ammu and reveals it to Mammachi and he even
offers to kill his own son, but Mammachi sends him away.

Techniques
Roy uses various techniques to represent the children's viewpoints and their innocence. One technique
she employs is the capitalization of certain words and phrases to give them significance (for example,
"Because Anything Can Happen To Anyone"). The children also restate things that adults say in a
phonetic way, separating and recombining words. This echoes the children's way of looking at the world,
distinct from the perspective of the grown-ups who surround them. Roy often uses metaphors that feature
elements that are more prominent in the lives of children, such as toothpaste, secrets, or portable pianos.
They place significance on words and ideas differently from the adults, thereby creating a new way of
viewing the world around them. They pick up on certain feelings and ideas that the adults around them
either fail or refuse to recognize, and give new significance to things that the adults ignore for their own
purposes.

The children use and repeat these phrases throughout the story so that the phrases themselves gain
independence and representational meanings. When writing, Roy said, "Repetition I love, and used
because it made me feel safe. Repeated words and phrases have a rocking feeling, like a lullaby. They
help take away the shock of the plot -- death, lives destroyed or the horror of the settings -- a crazy,
chaotic, emotional house, the sinister movie theater."[6]

Another way she plays with language is to join words together without punctuation, which we see in the
description of the 'Orangedrink Lemondrink man' or 'bluegreyblue eyes'. This subversion of the usual
rules of syntax and grammar not only places us in a child's view of the world, but it also draws attention
to the role of language in colonialism. By corrupting standard use of English (the colonial language of
India) Roy is rebelling against colonial influence still present in India, represented by characters such as
Margaret Kochamma and Chacko who always speak correctly.

Roy also employs a disjointed, non-sequential narrative style that echoes the process of memory,
especially the resurfacing of a previously suppressed, painful memory. The story of three different
generations is told simultaneously going back and forth in time.[10]

The uncovering of the story of Sophie's death, concurrently with the forward-moving story of Rahel's
return to Ayemenem and reunion with Estha, creates a complex narrative that emphasizes the difficulty of
the subject of the story and the complexity of the culture from which the story originates. Time is
rendered somewhat static as parts of one narrative line are intertwined through repetition and non-
sequential discovery. This is also part of the way Roy uses real-life places and people that she has shifted
and altered for use in the story. The story's many elements come together to construct a diverse look at
one instance of Indian culture and the effect of the caste system on life and love during a time of post-
colonialism. As the children try to form their own identities, naming and renaming themselves in the
process, Roy places in parallel the effect of the process by intertwining the past and the present.

This process also echoes the progression of the Indian people, like that of all cultures that try to find ways
to maintain their traditions in a time of increasing globalization.

Possible autobiographical elements

The God of Small Things is a work of fiction but some critics have tried to find autobiographical parallels
in the novel, while at the same time warning against drawing any simplistic connections between the
novel and the writer's life.[11] Some of the similarities between Roy's life and that of the characters she
creates include her own Syrian Christian and Hindu lineage; the divorce of her parents when she and her
brother were very young; her return to the family home in Ayemenem after her mother's divorce; and her
education in an architectural school, to name a few.[11] Some critics also attribute the political awareness
manifested in The God of Small Things to Roy's early life-influences from her mother, who was an
activist and feminist.[11]

Reception
The God of Small Things received stellar reviews in major American newspapers such as The New York
Times (a "dazzling first novel",[12] "extraordinary", "at once so morally strenuous and so imaginatively
supple"[13]) and the Los Angeles Times ("a novel of poignancy and considerable sweep"[14]), and in
Canadian publications such as the Toronto Star ("a lush, magical novel"[15]). Time named it one of the
best books of the year.[16] Critical response in the United Kingdom was less positive, and the awarding of
the Booker Prize caused controversy; Carmen Callil, a 1996 Booker Prize judge, called the novel
"execrable", and The Guardian described the contest as "profoundly depressing".[17] In India, the book
was criticised especially for its unrestrained description of sexuality. E. K. Nayanar,[18] then Chief
Minister of Roy's home state Kerala, voiced criticism about the book's depiction of women and sex, and
she had to answer charges of obscenity.[19] Some critics have pointed out that the reader reviews of this
book on bookseller websites are so extremely opposed at times that it is difficult to imagine readers are
talking about the same book.[20]

The book has since been translated into Malayalam by Priya A. S., under the title Kunju Karyangalude
Odeythampuran (Malayalam: കുഞ്ഞുകാര്യങ്ങളുടെ ഒടേതമ്പുരാൻ).[2] [21]

In 2014, the novel was ranked in The Daily Telegraph as one of the 10 all-time greatest Asian novels.[22]
On 5 November 2019, the BBC News listed The God of Small Things on its list of the 100 most
influential novels.[23] Emma Lee-Potter of The Independent listed it as one of the 12 best Indian
novels.[24]

In 2022, the novel was included on the "Big Jubilee Read" list of 70 books by Commonwealth authors,
selected to celebrate the Platinum Jubilee of Elizabeth II.[25]

In popular culture
In 2013, Talkhiyaan, a Pakistani television series based on the novel, was aired on Express Entertainment.

The band Darlingside credits the novel as the inspiration for their song "The God of Loss".[26]

References
1. "Interview with Arundhati Roy: How Small Things Grow into Something Far Greater" (https://
web.archive.org/web/19971013220227/http://www.harpercollins.co.uk/intv1/017/roy2.htm).
HarperCollins. 7 May 1997. Archived from the original (http://www.harpercollins.co.uk/intv1/0
17/roy2.htm) on 13 October 1997. Retrieved 29 December 2024.
2. Basheer, K. P. M. (3 January 2012). "Estha, Rahel now speak Malayalam" (http://www.thehi
ndu.com/news/cities/Kochi/estha-rahel-now-speak-malayalam/article1156883.ece). The
Hindu. Retrieved 20 July 2015.
 3. Barsamian, David (16 July 2007). "Interview with Arundhati Roy" (https://progressive.org/ma
gazine/interview-arundhati-roy-Barsamian/). The Progressive. Retrieved 29 December
2024.
4. Roy, Amitabh (2005). The God of Small Things: A Novel of Social Commitment (https://book
s.google.com/books?id=2LgYuhRK0yIC&q=%22Pradip+Krishen%22&pg=PA37). Atlantic.
pp. 37–38. ISBN 978-81-269-0409-9.
5. Roy, Arundhati (1998). The God of Small Things (https://books.google.com/books?id=2GES
vfIWs4YC). HarperPerennial. p. 321. ISBN 9780060977498.
6. Jana, Reena (30 September 1997). "Arundhati Roy" (https://www.salon.com/1997/09/30/00r
oy/). Salon.com. Retrieved 28 December 2024.
7. Gani, Martin. An Interview with Arundhati Roy, the Author of The God of Small Things .
online pdf here: https://www.sosyalarastirmalar.com/articles/an-interview-with-arundhati-roy-
the-author-of-the-god-of-small-things.pdf
8. Abraham, Vinu (26 October 1997). "Ayemenem country" (https://www.theweek.in/webworld/f
eatures/society/ayemenem-country.html). The Week. Retrieved 6 January 2025.
9. "There's something about Mary – Times of India" (https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/
sunday-times/Theres-something-about-Mary/articleshow/15871684.cms). The Times of
India. Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20160817012123/http://timesofindia.indiatimes.
com/home/sunday-times/Theres-something-about-Mary/articleshow/15871684.cms) from
the original on 17 August 2016. Retrieved 16 December 2017.
10. Lipson Freed, Joanne (2011). "The Ethics of Identification:: The Global Circulation of
Traumatic Narrative in Silko's Ceremony and Roy's The God of Small Things". Comparative
Literature Studies. 48 (2): 219–240. doi:10.5325/complitstudies.48.2.0219 (https://doi.org/1
0.5325%2Fcomplitstudies.48.2.0219). JSTOR 10.5325/complitstudies.48.2.0219 (https://ww
w.jstor.org/stable/10.5325/complitstudies.48.2.0219). S2CID 146663259 (https://api.semanti
cscholar.org/CorpusID:146663259).
11. Tickell, Alex (2007). Arundhati Roy's The God of Small Things (https://archive.org/details/aru
ndhatiroysgod00tick). London New York: Routledge Taylor and Francis Group. pp. 13 (http
s://archive.org/details/arundhatiroysgod00tick/page/n29). ISBN 978-0-415-35842-2.
12. Kakutani, Michiko (3 June 1997). "Melodrama as Structure for Subtlety" (https://www.nytime
s.com/1997/06/03/books/melodrama-as-structure-for-subtlety.html). The New York Times.
13. Truax, Alice (25 May 1997). "A Silver Thimble in Her Fist" (https://www.nytimes.com/books/9
7/05/25/reviews/970525.25truaxt.html). The New York Times.
14. Eder, Richard (1 June 1997). "As the world turns: rev. of The God of Small Things" (https://w
eb.archive.org/web/20110604044505/http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/latimes/access/1216871
3.html?dids=12168713:12168713&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&type=current&date=Jun+01,
+1997&author=RICHARD+EDER&pub=Los+Angeles+Times&desc=As+the+World+Turns%
3B+THE+GOD+OF+SMALL+THINGS.++By+Arundhati+Roy+.+Random+House:+321+pp.,+
$23&pqatl=google). Los Angeles Times. p. 2. Archived from the original (https://pqasb.pqarc
hiver.com/latimes/access/12168713.html?dids=12168713:12168713&FMT=ABS&FMTS=AB
S:FT&type=current&date=Jun+01%2C+1997&author=RICHARD+EDER&pub=Los+Angeles
+Times&desc=As+the+World+Turns%3B+THE+GOD+OF+SMALL+THINGS.++By+Arundha
ti+Roy+.+Random+House%3A+321+pp.%2C+%2423&pqatl=google) on 4 June 2011.
Retrieved 18 January 2010.
15. Carey, Barbara (7 June 1997). "A lush, magical novel of India". Toronto Star. p. M.21.
16. "Books: The best of 1997" (https://web.archive.org/web/20080306145812/http://www.time.co
m/time/magazine/article/0,9171,987619,00.html). Time. 29 December 1997. Archived from
the original (http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,987619,00.html) on 6 March
2008. Retrieved 18 January 2010.
17. "The scene is set for the Booker battle" (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/179131.stm).
BBC News. 24 September 1998. Retrieved 18 January 2010.
18. Kutty, N. Madhavan (9 November 1997). "Comrade of Small Jokes" (https://web.archive.org/
web/20000605215053/http://www.expressindia.com/ie/daily/19971109/31350653.html). The
Indian Express. Archived from the original (http://www.expressindia.com/ie/daily/19971109/3
1350653.html) on 5 June 2000. Retrieved 18 January 2010.
19. Bumiller, Elisabeth (29 July 1997). "A Novelist Beginning with a Bang" (https://www.nytimes.
com/1997/07/29/books/a-novelist-beginning-with-a-bang.html). The New York Times.
Retrieved 18 January 2010.
20. Tickell, Alex (2007). Arundhati Roy's The God of Small Things. UK USA Canada: Routledge
Taylor and Francis Group. pp. xiii. ISBN 978-0203004593.
21. "BBC toasts Indian literature" (https://www.telegraphindia.com/world/bbc-toasts-indian-literat
ure/cid/1717452).
22. "10 best Asian novels of all time" (https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/10630332/10-b
est-Asian-novels-of-all-time.html). The Telegraph. 22 April 2014. Retrieved 6 December
2020.
23. "100 'most inspiring' novels revealed by BBC Arts" (https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainmen
t-arts-50302788). BBC News. 5 November 2019. Retrieved 10 November 2019. "The reveal
kickstarts the BBC's year-long celebration of literature."
24. Lee-Potter, Emma (5 August 2020). "12 best Indian novels that everyone needs to read" (htt
ps://www.independent.co.uk/extras/indybest/books/fiction-books/best-india-books-literature-
novels-salman-rushdie-arundhati-roy-a9264211.html). The Independent. Archived (https://gh
ostarchive.org/archive/20220618/https://www.independent.co.uk/extras/indybest/books/fictio
n-books/best-india-books-literature-novels-salman-rushdie-arundhati-roy-a9264211.html)
from the original on 18 June 2022. Retrieved 23 December 2020.
25. "The Big Jubilee Read: A literary celebration of Queen Elizabeth II's record-breaking reign"
(https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/2Ynpj933DJ2YG5nsMS6fn8k/a-literary-celebrat
ion-of-queen-elizabeth-iis-record-breaking-reign). BBC. 17 April 2022. Retrieved 15 July
2022.
26. Boilen, Bob (29 October 2015). "First Watch: Darlingside, 'God of Loss' " (https://www.npr.or
g/event/music/450545356/first-watch-darlingside-god-of-loss). NPR. Retrieved 25 April
2017. "The character Velutha is tangled in a web of familial, cultural and romantic loyalties.
The lyrics for 'The God of Loss' were inspired by Velutha's attempts to preserve his
humanity in the face of those competing forces."
Ch'ien, Evelyn. "The Politics of Design: Arundhati Roy". In Weird English. Harvard University
Press, 2004.

Further reading
Arundhati Roy's The God of Small Things: Critique and Commentary, by R. S. Sharma,
Shashi Bala Talwar. Published by Creative Books, 1998. ISBN 81-86318-54-2.
Explorations: Arundhati Roy's the God of small things, by Indira Bhatt, Indira Nityanandam.
Published by Creative Books, 1999. ISBN 81-86318-56-9.
The God of Small Things: A Saga of Lost Dreams, by K. V. Surendran. Published by Atlantic
Publishers & Distributors, 2000. ISBN 81-7156-887-4. Excerpts (https://books.google.com/b
ooks?id=L9Fx0g3wyrAC&q=The+God+of+Small+Things)
Arundhati Roy's The God of small things: a reader's guide, by Julie Mullaney. Published by
Continuum International Publishing Group, 2002. ISBN 0-8264-5327-9.
Reading Arundhati Roy's The God of Small Things, by Carole Froude-Durix, Jean-Pierre
Durix. Published by Editions universitaires de Dijon, 2002. ISBN 2-905965-80-0,.
Arundhati Roy's The god of small things: a critical appraisal, by Amar Nath Prasad.
Published by Sarup & Sons, 2004. ISBN 81-7625-522-X.
 Derozio To Dattani: Essays in Criticism, by Sanjukta Das. Published by Worldview
Publications, 2009. ISBN 81-86423-19-2
The God of Small Things: A Novel of Social Commitment, by Amitabh Roy. Published by
Atlantic Publishers & Distributors, 2005. ISBN 81-269-0409-7. Excerpts (https://books.googl
e.com/books?id=2LgYuhRK0yIC&dq=%22Pradip+Krishen%22&pg=PA37)
Arundhati Roy's The god of small things, by Alex Tickell. Published by Routledge, 2007.
ISBN 0-415-35843-4. Excerpts (https://books.google.com/books?id=ZhpamUVJYNQC&dq=
Khejarli&pg=PA34)
Caste and The God of Small Things Emory University.
The God of Small Things, Chapter One – Paradise Pickles and Preserves (https://www.nyti
mes.com/books/first/r/roy-god.html) The New York Times

External links
Arundhati Roy discusses The God of Small Things (https://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/spe
cials/133_wbc_archive_new/page5.shtml) on the BBC World Book Club

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