The Big Things lurk unsaid inside."" Plangent with a sad wisdom, the children's view is never oversimplified, and the adult characters reveal their frailties-and in one case, a repulsively evil power-in subtle and complex ways. Rahel notices that ""at times like these, only the Small Things are ever said. Roy captures the children's candid observations but clouded understanding of adults' complex emotional lives. Beneath the drama of a family tragedy lies a background of local politics, social taboos and the tide of history-all of which come together in a slip of fate, after which a family is irreparably shattered. In a circuitous and suspenseful narrative, Roy reveals the family tensions that led to the twins' behavior on the fateful night that Sophie drowned. Set in Kerala, India, during the late 1960s when Communism rattled the age-old caste system, the story begins with the funeral of young Sophie Mol, the cousin of the novel's protagonists, Rahel and her fraternal twin brother, Estha. With sensuous prose, a dreamlike style infused with breathtakingly beautiful images and keen insight into human nature, Roy's debut novel charts fresh territory in the genre of magical, prismatic literature.
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