Arundhati Roy, The God of Small Things

Michael Meyer (Universität Koblenz-Landau)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 10.3.1.03: Indian Writing and Culture: Post-colonial, 1947-present.
Vol. editors: Claire Gallien (Université Paul Valéry Montpellier 3), Pavan Kumar Malreddy (J W Goethe University of Frankfurt), Delphine Munos (Université de Liège)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1997

Places

India (Country of Origin)
United Kingdom (Publication/ performance)

Genres and Modes

Novel

Resources

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The God of Small Things

was written by Arundhati Roy, who was trained as an architect, is married and a mother of two children, writes film scripts and engages in social and environmental projects as a political activist. Her first and to date only novel, published in 1997 on the 50th anniversary of Indian independence, won the Booker Prize in the same year and has enjoyed an immense worldwide success, having been translated in about 40 languages. The multifaceted novel appeals to a wide audience because it is about hope and disillusionment in a family over three generations in “exotic” Southern India, and because it is mysterious, historical, poetic, postcolonial and postmodern all at the same time. However, its great popular and academic acclaim has not gone without criticism.…

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2133 words

Citation: Meyer, Michael. "The God of Small Things". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 01 April 2011 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=19367, accessed 18 April 2024.]

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