The Gypsy Goddess

Village landlords force peasants to break their backs in the paddy fields or suffer beatings as punishment. In the midst of this daily misery it is little wonder that the communist Party begins to gain traction, a small spark of defiance spreading from villager to villager. As communities across the region begin to take a stand against the landlords, the landlords vow to break them: party organizers suffer grisly deaths and the flow of marketplace food dries up. But intimidation only serves to make the villagers’ resistance burn more fiercely. Finally, the landlords descend on one village to set an example to the others… Brilliantly original, ferociously angry and, at times, laugh-outloud funny, The Gypsy Goddess is both a novel about a true-life massacre and a novel about the impossibility of writing a novel about a true-life massacre. Treading the line between powerful fiction and fearsome critique, Meena Kandasamy leads us through a rapidly modernizing India and, along the way, points out injustices of privilege, hypocrisies of authority and the unforgiveable politics of turning a blind eye.