Twins Rahel and Estha grow up in Kerala amid an unsettled family life and a changing political landscape. Their childhood experiences, and the adults whose choices surround them, reveal how private relationships can be shaped by rules about class, caste and love.

Arundhati Roy’s novel moves between memory and the consequences of earlier events, drawing attention to the small details that carry lasting emotional weight. This English-language HarperCollins paperback presents the novel that won the 1997 Booker Prize.