All of Kali and Ponnas efforts to conceive a child from prayers to penance, potions to pilgrimages have been in vain. Despite being in a loving and sexually satisfying relationship, they are relentlessly hounded by the taunts and insinuations of the people around them. Ultimately, all their hopes and apprehensions come to converge on the chariot festival in the temple of the half-female god Ardhanareeswara and the revelry surrounding it. Everything hinges on the one night when rules are relaxed and consensual union between any man and woman is sanctioned. This night could end the couples suffering and humiliation. But it will also put their marriage to the ultimate test. Acutely observed, One Part Woman lays bare with unsparing clarity a relationship caught between the dictates of social convention and the tug of personal anxieties, vividly conjuring an intimate and unsettling portrait of marriage, love and sex.
About the Author
Perumal Murugan is a well-known contemporary Tamil writer and poet. He was written six novels, four collections of short stories and four anthologies of poetry. Two of his novels have been translated into English to wide acclaim: Seasons of the Palm, which was shortlisted for the prestigious Kiriyama Award in 2005 and Current Show. He has received awards from the Tamil Nadu government as well as from Katha Books. Aniruddhan Vasudevan is a performer, writer, translator and activist based in Chennai. He has written for the New Indian Express, Media Voice and Kalachuvadu. He also documents various public health projects and art projects and is involved in LGBT advocacy work. He is currently a graduate student in anthropology at the University of Texas, Austin and is also working on his first novel.
Official Review
A loving couple. Kali and Ponnas have it all. Almost, have it all. Except for a child, which they want so badly. The society taunts them. Their families have been waiting in anticipation. All of their hopes are then on the one chariot festival in the temple of the half-female god Ardhanareeswara, where all rules are relaxed and consensual union between any man and woman is permitted. Will the couple want to do something like this? That remains to be seen. This is the crux of the story.
Murugans writing is stark and clear. His imagery of marriage, sex, companionship and the hypocrisy of the society we live in cannot get better than this work. He speaks of a world where both spectrums ironically try to survive together the traditional and the modern and amidst all this, he makes sense of his characters and their dilemmas. Just for the uniqueness of the plot, this already is my favourite work of the year.
Praise for Perumal Murugan:
Perumal Murugan opens up the layers of desire, longing, loss and fulfilment in a relationship with extraordinary sensitivity and surgical precision Ambai
- The most accomplished of his generation of Tamil writers The Caravan
- The Tamil Irvine Welsh The Guardian
- Murugans insights about relationships spread throughout his work like flashes of lightning Kalachuvadu
- Powerful . . . lyrical The Hindu
| Publisher | Penguin |
| Imprint | Hamish Hamilton |
| Publication Year | 2013 December |
| ISBN-13 | 9780670086511 |
| ISBN-10 | 0670086517 |
| Language | English |
| Binding | Hardcover |
| Number of Pages | 248 Pages |
| Book Type | Fiction Book |
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