The God of Small Things
BOOKER PRIZE WINNER • NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • An affluent Indian family is forever changed by one fateful day in 1969, from the author of The Ministry of Utmost Happiness and Mother Mary Comes to Me
“[The God of Small Things] offers such magic, mystery, and sadness that, literally, this reader turned the last page and decided to reread it. Immediately. It’s that haunting.”—USA Today
Compared favorably to the works of Faulkner and Dickens, Arundhati Roy’s modern classic is equal parts powerful family saga, forbidden love story, and piercing political drama. The seven-year-old twins Estha and Rahel see their world shaken irrevocably by the arrival of their beautiful young cousin, Sophie. It is an event that will lead to an illicit liaison and tragedies accidental and intentional, exposing “big things [that] lurk unsaid” in a country drifting dangerously toward unrest.
Lush, lyrical, and unnerving, The God of Small Things is an award-winning landmark that started for its author an esteemed career of fiction and political commentary that continues unabated.
“[The God of Small Things] offers such magic, mystery, and sadness that, literally, this reader turned the last page and decided to reread it. Immediately. It’s that haunting.”—USA Today
Compared favorably to the works of Faulkner and Dickens, Arundhati Roy’s modern classic is equal parts powerful family saga, forbidden love story, and piercing political drama. The seven-year-old twins Estha and Rahel see their world shaken irrevocably by the arrival of their beautiful young cousin, Sophie. It is an event that will lead to an illicit liaison and tragedies accidental and intentional, exposing “big things [that] lurk unsaid” in a country drifting dangerously toward unrest.
Lush, lyrical, and unnerving, The God of Small Things is an award-winning landmark that started for its author an esteemed career of fiction and political commentary that continues unabated.
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Community Reviews
One of my all time favorites. The first time I read it, it took a lot of time for me to be my former self again. It has remained with me and I think will remain with me for whole my life. Made me feel a thousand emotions all at once. Like I wanted to say something, something so important, yet I couldn't find the right words for it. This is one of the earliest books which made me love reading.
While The God of Small Things was initially challenging for many of our readers—largely due to its non-linear narrative style—our commitment to reading through revealed the brilliance of Arundhati Roy’s storytelling. The novel, shifting between present and future tenses, gradually unfolded into a deeply layered exploration of family, trauma, and societal norms.
The character of Baby Kochamma brought moments of humor, balancing the emotional depth portrayed through the lives of the twins and their childhood experiences. The book is a powerful reflection on how children internalize trauma differently, how environment shapes destiny, and how communities often fail to address emotional wounds.
It also highlights the universal pressures placed on women across cultures and generations, showing how societal expectations and racial dynamics deeply affect their lives. Overall, The God of Small Things is a thought-provoking read that unpacks complex themes of identity, loss, and resilience.
This book was the hardest book that I have ever tried to read. It was like wading through a poetic moat. The words from the culture were foreign to me. The book is divided in ways that sometimes makes it hard to tell where you’re at, who you “are”, and what moment you're in. There are so many characters with exotic names (ex. Kochamma & Mammachi) introduced all at once that you don’t know who is who. Finally, the book spends the vast majority of the time describing things and not really telling a story. Maybe it's too "literary" for my tastes but I had to work really hard to finish it.
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