Pyre by Perumal Murugan, Translated from Tamil by Annirudhan Vasudevan

Summary

Pyre is the story of a love-struck couple in the villages of India – Saroja and Kumarasen. They come to the groom’s village to settle after secretly getting married. But they are hiding a dangerous truth – that their marriage is an inter-caste marriage.

Kumarasen is confident in his belief that his mother and their relatives will understand their love for each other and he also believes that after some initial gossip, the villagers will also accept them into their community.

Alas, all is not well and life doesn’t always turn out how we believe it too.

My Review

The writing of the story is so powerful that I was terrified for the innocent and helpless newlyweds. Perumal Murugan paints a very grim, and disturbing picture through this revenge story of the villagers. What was surprising was the indifference and lack of understanding shown by the groom’s mother and closest family. Even the bride’s parents did not seem too bothered about their daughter.

The book paints a very disheartening but painful reality of rural India. Casteism - the brutality, violence, and emotions of the people involved could not have been portrayed better through any other fictional story. My heart went out to Saroja but I was equally heartbroken for the honest and hard-working Kumarasen.  And the whole village set-up and the mentality of villagers have been captured perfectly.

Final Verdict

I wish the story was longer.

Who Should Read This

I highly recommend this for readers who want to read beautifully and powerfully written Indian stories.