Description:
Raw, tender, and darkly comic, The Abyss is widely considered a masterpiece from Jeyamohan, a writer whose body of work has shaped modern Tamil literature.
Pothivelu Pandaram is known as a successful, God-fearing man about town: he has a loyal wife, three daughters, and money to pay for their dowries. However, it's an open secret that his success is fueled by a trade that is as profitable as it is cruel: he owns--and breeds--a group of physically deformed beggars and places them outside temples to collect money.
There is Mangandi Samy, with just one arm, no legs, and "a little head on top," who only speaks in divine songs he himself invents; Ahmedkutty, an intellectual whose testicles hang to the floor "like two great pumpkins"; Muthammai, mother to eighteen children. To Pandaram, they are only "items," to be bought and sold like cattle. But when he makes an impulsive trade, his luck turns.
Written with an unflinching eye and suffused with a deep existential longing, The Abyss is an extraordinary novel--for its terrain, its fundamental questions about humanity, and its depiction of human suffering and liberation.
Brief description: Jeyamohan is a preeminent writer in modern Tamil literature. His works of fiction examine fundamental human questions while being rooted in the spiritual, cultural and literary traditions of India. Venmurasu, his reimagination of the epic Mahabharata over a novel-series of twenty-six parts, is considered one of the longest literary works in the world. His other major works include the novels Vishnupuram, Kottravai, Pin Thodarum Nizhalin Kural, Kaadu, and Ezhaam Ulagam (The Abyss). He is the founder of several important cultural initiatives in Tamil, including a literary organization called the Vishnupuram Literary Circle, an encyclopedia of Tamil culture called Tamil Wiki, and an institute that offers courses in philosophy, cultural and religious studies called Nityavanam. The Abyss is his second work to be available in English, following his short story collection Stories of the True, which was a finalist for the National Translation Award in 2023. Jeyamohan lives in Nagercoil, India.
Review Quotes:
Praise for The Abyss:
"An astonishing work... I have read nothing like it in years."--Sam Sacks, The Wall Street Journal
"This deeply human story tells of slavery, religious hypocrisy, official corruption, and arranged marriage in 1991 Tamil Nadu... Yet the novel is eminently readable, thanks to the unsparing view not just of Pandaram's cruelty but his folly, as well as the wit and wisdom of the beggars. This is a masterpiece."--Publishers Weekly, starred review
"A uniquely harrowing read... The author has skillfully disappeared inside this extraordinary and important story. Illuminating."--Sara Baume, The Irish Times"A disquieting novel from the outset, one in which familiar-seeming family bonds are revisited with troubling power dynamics, and accompanied by case studies in sincerity and hypocrisy."--Tobias Carroll, Words Without Borders"Jeyamohan displays a Gogolian ability to portray the grotesque without losing sight of what is vitally human and real."--Jess Jensen Mitchell, Full StopPraise for Jeyamohan:
"A staggering talent."--Publishers Weekly, starred review
"Jeyamohan is one of India's most resourceful makers of literary art."--Pankaj Mishra, author of The World After Gaza
"Jeyamohan takes us through the underbelly of mofussil India, in which everyday living is fraught with casteism, moral decadence, and corruption. In more ways than one, the stories capture that unnerving feeling of dharma--the most complex but least articulated value of Indian civilization . . . Our understanding of contemporary India is incomplete without reading Jeyamohan."--Vivek Shanbhag, author of Ghachar Ghochar
"A book that moved me to tears, so much so that I could barely read the words. Stories of the True is a must-read."--Kamal Haasan, award-winning Tamil actor and director
"Each story invites the reader to contemplate our complex world in a deeper way and reminds us of the struggle we must wage to live as ethical humans."--N. Kalyan Raman