Goat Days by Benyamin, translated by Joseph Koyippally

Goat Days
Benyamin
Translated by Joseph Koyippally
First published 2008, I read 2012 translation
255 pages, fictional memoir

Thank you to Penguin India for providing a review copy of this book. 

When I first moved to Kerala last year, I wrote to my contact at Penguin India asking for review copies of novels written by Malayali authors, especially ones that were translated from Malayalam. I expected that reading these novels would help me to understand the culture that I was now immersed in.

In fact, the opposite happened: my experience of living in Kerala, and especially my husband’s experiences of working closely with Keralites, has made me intimately familiar with Malayali attitudes and society, even without knowing the language at all. So instead of this novel helping to understand the society, my knowledge of the society will help me to discuss the deeper social implications of this novel.

In this novel, a poor Malayali man named Najeeb gets the opportunity to go to one of the countries in the Persian Gulf – probably Saudi Arabia – to take up a relatively lucrative job. However, when he arrives he discovers that his dreams have led him to the exact opposite of what he expected: instead of a comfortable, air-conditioned flat and a job in construction, he finds himself working as a slave in the middle of the desert, herding goats, sheep, and camels, and living without even a shelter to protect him from the sun’s heat. Set in 1991, this shows the flip side of Malayali migration to the better-paying jobs on the Arabian peninsula.

Opportunities Abroad

Going to another country to make money seems like it would be a big decision that would require planning. However, Najeeb displays an astonishing lack of forethought regarding this move. In his own words,

How long have I been here, diving for a living? How about going abroad for once? Not for long. I am not greedy. Only long enough to settle a few debts. Add a room to the house. Just the usual cravings of most Malayalis…. Can one go hungry? I have, in the past. But things are different now. Now, at [my Mom]’s insistence, I am married. My wife is four months pregnant. Expenditure will now mount up like sand.

The Devourers by Indra Das

The Devourers
Indra Das
2015, Penguin India
344 pages, speculative, fantasy, historical fiction, LGBTQA+

Many thanks to Penguin India for providing a review copy of this book. 

In present-day Kolkata, Alok Mukherjee, a lonely history professor, meets a man who claims to be a werewolf. Well, a half-werewolf. Intrigued by this man and his stories, Alok agrees to do some work for the stranger: he will type a transcription of the stranger's handwritten translation of some old texts. What Alok finds in those pages continues to lead him into a world that he did not know existed - a world filled with supernatural beings, shapeshifters who live in tribes in every part of the world. According to his new acquaintance and the texts he transcribes, Alok comes to know that all the myths and legends that humanity has created are descriptions of these fantastic beings who are so different from us. Through this work and his friendship with the stranger, Alok discovers the complexity and simplicity of his own needs, leading him to let go of his lonely past and move toward a happier future.

What is in the texts? There are two, written by separate authors. The first is written by a Northern European shapeshifter known as Fenrir, one of three who have arrived in India during the Mughal Era, probably in the late 1630s. In a caravanserai in Mumtazabad, the city of the builders of the Taj Mahal, he meets a lone woman, Cyrah, a wanderer of Persian origin who is currently working as a prostitute. Instead of buying her time and body, he asks only for a lock of her hair. But then he returns that night and rapes her, intending to impregnate her with his child so that he can reproduce. Having sex with a human is taboo amongst the shapeshifters, and the resulting argument ends with the three-person pack breaking up.

The second text is written by Cyrah, lovingly addressed to her child, the product of this supernatural rape. In an attempt to track down her rapist, Cyrah joins forces with Gévaudan, one of his former packmates. Gévaudan is much younger than Fenrir, and has his own reasons for wanting to find his old friend. Cyrah wants to punish her rapist for what he did, and, perhaps, get him to take away the child that he gave to her. If, of course, he is a djinni like he claimed to be.

In the visceral telling of these stories, we uncover a tale of blood and love and sex and violence, one that will stay with me for years to come. Without hesitation, I can say that this novel is one of the best works of fantasy that I have ever read. It deals with difficult discussions of violence, gender, and love with a confidence that few writers can muster, especially in a debut novel.

As of this writing, it seems that Penguin has not released this novel outside of the Indian subcontinent. I hope to see it available in the US and UK soon. It would be very disappointing to see this wonderful novel confined only to South Asian readers, when the rest of the world needs to have access to it as well.