The God of Small Things

Arundhati Roy plumbs modern India in this brilliant first novel about love across the bar of caste, The God of Small Things. When the daughter of a declining feudal house is touched by an untouchable, half a dozen lives are destroyed. In beautifully paced scenes, Roy builds small, savory details (armpits, belly buttons, insects, toys) into a Salman Rushdie-style mock epic. All is filtered through the eyes of 7-year-old twins, who speak a private language of nicknames and repetitions. If the tale is tragic, the telling — in this postmodern parable — is playful, exuberant, teeming with life. A