N. S. Madhavan - Novel

Novel

After thirty-three years as a writer, Madhavan published his debut novel in 2003 as Lanthan Batheriyile Luthiniyakal, translated as Litanies of the Dutch Battery in 2010. It was well received by Malayalam readers and has been reprinted many times. The novel is about life on an imaginary island in the Kochi backwater, named after a 17th century battery (bathery in Malayalam) of five cannons installed on its promontory by the Dutch (Lanthans in Malayalam). Jessica, the young narrator of the story, is the scion of a family of carpenters with a long tradition of boat building. Her remniscences start from the days when she was inside her pregnant mother's womb. The novel presents an intimate picture of life of the Latin Christians of the Kerala coast, descendants of poor, low-caste Hindus who were converted to Christianity by Portuguese colonists in the 16th century. In contrast, Arundhati Roy's The God of Small Things is about Syrian Christian upper caste converts to Christianity in Kerala.

The novel it is set between 1951 and 1967, the first sixteen years of Jessica life, but draws upon history going back to the time of Vasco Da Gama. She was born at a time when people used to run away from cow-pox vaccinators as well as the period when Kerala embraced communism, which the novelist calls the 'watermelon years' – an allusion to the verdant green-canopied Kerala with its hidden red watermelons. There are captivating descriptions of Latin Christian residents of the Dutch Battery preparing themselves for months prior to the staging of Karalman Chavittu Nadakam, an operatic play about Charlemagne, originally written in Tamil and pidgin Latin by Chinnathambi Annavi in the 16th century. Set against the background of the city of Madhavan's birth, Kochi, the Lanthan Batheriyile Luthiniyakal is a roller coaster ride through micro histories, the nascent days of a newly independent country, the growth and decline of ideas, and the randomness of events affecting human lives. Well-known Malayalam novelist M. Mukundan made the following assessment after reviewing the novel, "N.S. Madhavan has rejuvenated Malayalam fiction." He summarises the novel thus: " is all about history and imagination—the protogonists of new fiction that is in vogue." Mukundan added, "The novel is heavily populated with communists, priests, carpenters, cooks, boatmen, librarians, school teachers, even tailors. At times you will come across history makers from faraway Russia -- Joseph Stalin, Imre Nagy, Nikita Khrushchev..."

The English translation was shortlisted for the 2011 The Hindu Literary Prize, translated by Rajesh Raja Mohan.