Study Guide to The God of Small ThingsArundhati Roy (Flamingo, 1997)Key ConceptsBoundaries, morality, history, love, death, family relationships, fear, guilt. SummaryThe God of Small Things is the story of a family in India whose members transgress accepted boundaries in various ways and the tragic events that result. Estha and Rahel are twins whose cousin comes from England to stay. While there she dies and the twins hold themselves responsible. They also hold themselves responsible for the death of an Untouchable employee of the family firm who has befriended them and who, though they didn’t realise it, had begun an affair with their mother. The twins are separated from each other and from their mother after this and struggle through life until they come back together twenty three years later. Cultural significanceThis was the 1997 Booker Prize winner. Sales have remained very high—over a quarter of a million copies have now been sold (30/8/98) and it is still well up in the best-seller lists. It has been translated into 27 languages. Biographical backgroundArundhati Roy was born in 1961 in Bengal, grew up in Kerala where The God of Small Things is set and trained as an architect at the Delhi School of Architecture. She became well known for ‘complex and scathing’ film scripts. She received a £500,000 advance on the book. Her mother was at the centre of a court case that changed Indian inheritance laws in favour of women. Arundhati Roy was closely acquainted with the Syrian Orthodox church, which features prominently in the
