The Story of a Goat (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9780802147516)

LONGLISTED FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FOR TRANSLATED LITERATURE

From one of India's best-known writers and the author of the National Book Award-longlisted One Part Woman comes a charming and surprising tale of an orphaned goat and the family that decides to take care of her, despite the potential cost to them.

As he did in the award-winning One Part Woman, in his newest novel, The Story of a Goat, Perumal Murugan explores a side of India that is rarely considered in the West: the rural lives of the country's farming community. He paints a bucolic yet sometimes menacing portrait, showing movingly how danger and deception can threaten the lives of the weakest through the story of a helpless young animal lost in a world it naively misunderstands.

As the novel opens, a farmer in Tamil Nadu is watching the sunset over his village one quiet evening when a mysterious stranger, a giant man who seems more than human, appears on the horizon. He offers the farmer a black goat kid who is the runt of the litter, surely too frail to survive. The farmer and his wife take care of the young she-goat, whom they name Poonachi, and soon the little goat is bounding with joy and growing at a rate they think miraculous for such a small animal. Intoxicating passages from the goat's perspective offer a bawdy and earthy view of what it means to be an animal and a refreshing portrayal of the natural world. But Poonachi's life is not destined to be a rural idyll--dangers can lurk around every corner, and may sometimes come from surprising places, including a government that is supposed to protect the weak and needy. Is this little goat too humble a creature to survive such a hostile world?

With allegorical resonance for contemporary society and examining hierarchies of caste and color, The Story of the Goat is a provocative but heartwarming fable from a world-class storyteller who is finally achieving recognition outside his home country.

Author: Perumal Murugan
ISBN-10: 0802147518
ISBN-13: 9780802147516
Publisher: Grove Press, Black Cat
Language: English
Published: 12/10/2019
Pages: 192
Format: Paperback
Weight: 0.50lbs
Size: 8.20h x 5.50w x 0.70d
Award: National Book Awards - Nominee

Review Citation(s):
Publishers Weekly 09/02/2019
Kirkus Reviews 10/01/2019 pg. 18
Booklist 11/01/2019 pg. 19
Shelf Awareness 01/03/2020