One Part Woman

Book excerpt: A vibrant fable of marriage, caste and social convention from a major Indian writer Kali and Ponna are perfectly content in their marriage, aside from one thing, they are unable to conceive. As their childlessness begins to attract local gossip and family disapproval, they try everything from prayers to potions, but none of the offerings or rituals helps. Increasingly unhappy and desperate, they consider a more drastic plan: the annual chariot festival, a celebration of the half-male, half-female god Maadhorubaagan. For one night, the rules of marriage are relaxed, and consensual sex between unmarried men and women is overlooked, for all men are considered gods. But rather than bring them together, this scheme threatens to drive the couple apart. Selling over 100,000 copies in India, where it was published first in the original Tamil and then in this celebrated English translation, One Part Woman has become a cult phenomenon in the subcontinent, jump-starting conversations about caste and female empowerment. Tender, deeply poignant, and bitingly critical, One Part Woman is a powerful exploration of a loving marriage under strain. Perumal Murugan is an Indian author and professor of Tamil literature. He has written six novels and four collections each of short stories and poetry. His best-known novel One Part Woman, highly controversial in India, won the ILF Samanvay Basha Samman, and Aniruddhan Vasudevan's English rendering won the Translation Prize from India's National Academy of Letters.