'The Solitude of a Shadow' book review: Intriguing, suspenseful and mysterious
The first sentence of 'The Solitude of a Shadow' —written by veteran Tamil writer Devibharathi, and translated by N Kalyan Raman—creates a sense of foreboding: “Karunakaran had turned up before us like an evil spirit after nearly 30 years.” This is the thought process of the nameless protagonist, a clerk in a government school. Karunakaran, the owner of a loan shop, had come to see the headmaster. It was clear from the latter’s reaction, and that of the staff that he was a man of influence. The protagonist, however, is dumbfounded after learning that Karunakaran is a successful entrepreneur and the president of the school’s Parent-Teacher Association, thanks to whose efforts, new classrooms had been made.
The reason behind the shocked reaction was that it was Karunakaran who had raped the protagonist’s sister, Sharada, three decades ago. Their mother had told her after the incident, “It’s nothing. You will be alright.” Out hero was only 12, but he remembers shouting at Karunakaran, “No matter how long it takes, I won’t rest until I have chopped you into pieces. I’ll avenge this, da.”
The culprit had in turn laughed, and then told their mother, “The boy watches a lot of movies, it seems. Such a small runt. You are no bigger than a crab, but you stood there with a sickle in your hand and threatened to kill me.” When the protagonist mentioned the reemergence of Karunakaran to Sharada, “the smouldering embers of her vengeance had begun to shed the layers of ash deposited by time”. She then asked her brother to avenge her.
He wrote an anonymous letter describing the rape of Sharada, and sent it by post to Karunakaran’s home. “I wanted him to feel on his dead tongue the salt of the tears that had flowed from Sharada’s brown eyes as she stood before him trembling like a wounded bird. He would never have imagined that I would follow him like a vengeful serpent and that he would struggle to protect himself from the panic that would follow.” Thus, begins the cat-and-mouse game between the two. It is intriguing, suspenseful and mysterious. No rising heat wave or a falling water table can distract the reader from enjoying this superb novel.
Devibharathi has been a government employee, political activist, the managing editor of a literary magazine and scriptwriter. He won the Sahitya Akademi award in 2023. Nizhalin Thanimai (The Solitude of a Shadow), published in 2012, is his first novel. In his four-decade-long career, he has published two short story collections, four novellas, four novels, a play and two non-fiction anthologies, which contain his essays and memoirs. One only hopes that there is more to come.
The Solitude of a Shadow
By: Devibharathi
Translated by: N Kalyan Raman
Publisher: HarperCollins
Pages: 199
Price: Rs 399