Reviews and Comments

This is a story of struggle told chiefly from the view point of woman of Tamil Ezham after they were defeated in the Lankan civil war, superimposed over a story of a queen in historical context. For me, the enjoyability of such novels depend chiefly on how true to historical circumstances the story is. For me, an important facet of this novel is its focus on the atrocities committed on tamil women by the Lankan military. As the novelist says, while Lanka is close to us (culturally and geographically), we (Keralites) are often blind to the plight of its people. It serves to remind us that it is not just in the (for us) far-flung places like Syria and Iraq that the systematic abuse of women occur, and makes us ashamed of paying scant heed.

While the novelist has done better this time compared to his previous novel [b:ഫ്രാൻസിസ് ഇട്ടിക്കോര Francis Itty Cora|11295292|ഫ്രാൻസിസ് ഇട്ടിക്കോര Francis Itty Cora|T.D. Ramakrishnan|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1468174203s/11295292.jpg|16222792], this novel too suffers from an insufficient connection between the story line, and the historical story of a heroine that the story is superimposed on.

I reread it recently, after reading the book [b:Pranayathinte Rajakumari - Madhavikutty|30519241|Pranayathinte Rajakumari - Madhavikutty|Merrily Weisbord|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1465624537s/30519241.jpg|51039587] a partial description of her time with the author by [a:Merrily Weisbord|128159|Merrily Weisbord|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-632230dc9882b4352d753eedf9396530.png].

If you are a Malayali, I would advise you to read the book [b:Pranayathinte Rajakumari - Madhavikutty|30519241|Pranayathinte Rajakumari - Madhavikutty|Merrily Weisbord|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1465624537s/30519241.jpg|51039587] first before reading this one, because at times a lot of things are left unsaid, and other times, certain connections need to be made between the prose.

I would also recommend people interested in reading the book to also keep in mind the social environment in Kerala at the time or even later. The author has been criticized quite a lot by people who expect her to follow the path that they expect her to follow. An example is this one that castigates her conversion to Islam as mere histrionics.

Finally, read this autobiography with the understanding that the narrator is unreliable (perhaps a plot device, or perhaps not), and that some of the text may not strictly be chronological.