mybookjournal

Aavarana - What a Brilliantly compelling, powerful novel this was!!! I cherished every minute spent with it , as well as the time spent with Lakshmi aka Razia the protagonist, who spent years to complete her fathers unfinished research work about Indian history to give it a shape and bring out the reality in the form of a fiction. Which is the sub-plot (novel) of this novel which talks about the accurate history. I will not go deep into the storyline or the characters but all I want to say is this novel is worth reading if you can take the harsh reality of our history with no sugarcoating.

Hats off to S.L. Bhyrappa for giving us such a well-researched, well-versed novel on a sensitive and controversial subject like this, where one cannot argue with the context of the novel because of the real bibliographical facts provided at the end of the book. The story does not stress on ‘who was right or who was wrong’, but the facts given definitely educates us on what was right and what was wrong.

While reading Avarana I had so many questions going inside my head. Firstly, I wanted to know why SL Bhyrappa wanted to write a novel about Indian history with such harsh truth and brutality with no flowery prose or fear of critics. (Needless to say this was one of the most controversial book ever written, however this novel went on to create a record in the Indian literary world by witnessing 10 reprints within five months of its release). So as soon as I finished the novel I searched for the details and came across the some related article and also an interview on youtube which cleared all my doubts. Lastly thanks a ton to Sandeep Balakrishna for such an excellent translation.