One Part Woman
By (Author) Perumal Murugan
Translated by Aniruddhan Vasudevan
Pushkin Press
Pushkin Press
3rd September 2019
25th July 2019
United Kingdom
General
Fiction
894.811372
Paperback
256
Width 129mm, Height 198mm
One Part Woman tells the story of Kali and Ponna, a South Indian couple perfectly content in their marriage, aside from one thing - they are unable to conceive. Quickly attracting gossip and familial disapproval, they try everything they can to have a child, from offerings at temples to atoning for the misdeeds of their ancestors, but each attempt brings fresh disappointment.
Their final hope rests on the annual chariot festival, a celebration of a god who is one-part woman, one-part man. For one night, the rules of marriage are relaxed and consensual sex between unmarried men and women is overlooked, for all men are considered gods. Could this be the opportunity they've been searching for
Both tender and bitingly critical, One Part Woman is a powerful tale of marriage formed and deformed by social custom and anxiety.
Perumal Murugan is an Indian author and professor of Tamil literature. He has written six novels and four collections each of short stories and poetry. His best-known novel One Part Woman, highly controversial in India, won the ILF Samanvay Basha Samman, and Aniruddhan Vasudevan's English rendering won the Translation Prize from India's National Academy of Letters.