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Inspired by her family history, Padma Viswanathan takes us deep inside the private lives of a Brahmin family. At the novel`s heart is Sivakami, married at ten, widowed at eighteen, and left with two children. According to the dictates of her caste, her head is shaved and she must wear widow`s whites. From dawn to dusk, she is not allowed to contaminate herself with human touch, not even to comfort her small children.
And she dutifully follows custom, except for one defiant act: she moves back to her husband`s house and village to raise her children. Her servant, Muchami, a closeted gay man who is bound by a very different set of caste rules, becomes her public face. This singular relationship, scrupulously formal yet indispensable for both, hold three generations together through a turbulent half-century of social and political change.
The Toss of a Lemon is heartbreaking and exhilarating, utterly recognisable in evoking the tensions that change brings to every family. At once epic and intimate, this masterful novel is the debut of a major new storyteller.
ISBN - 9789380032436
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