Read The House of Blue Mangoes Online

Authors: David Davidar

The House of Blue Mangoes

Critical acclaim for
The House of Blue Mangoes
:

‘The book is huge in scope but intimate in detail . . . there are some magnificent set pieces’

Elizabeth Grice,
Daily Telegraph


The House of Blue Mangoes
artfully weaves many strands of Indian life into a vivid, highly coloured story . . . in the best sense, he knows how to tell a good story, and to do it with words and phrases that stamp on the mind a lasting impression of the sights, sounds, and smells of southern India’

Mark Bostridge,
Independent on Sunday

‘I was caught up in his world, almost able to taste the lavish, spicy meals, see the sunrise with its “ordinary violence of dawn” and recognise the eccentric Indians or the English clergyman, who being in love with India is eager to martyr himself for it . . . And he writes beautifully’

Jessica Mann,
Sunday Telegraph

‘Davidar skilfully mixes the political with the personal to create an engrossing read’

Daily Mail

‘An eloquent, lyrical tale . . . [an] enduring tale that proves years of plowing through a slush pile – learning how not to write – can produce a master storyteller’

Meenakshi Ganguly,
Time


The House of Blue Mangoes
is that rare thing: a deeply intelligent novel that’s also a cracking page-turner, and it’s one of the best books I’ve read in a very long time’

Diana McPartlin,
South China Morning Post

‘I had not read anything so good for a long time . . . he has produced a masterpiece’

Khushwant Singh,
Outlook


The House of Blue Mangoes
is a Tolstoyan saga . . . a solidly absorbing, richly informative Indian novel that should please a lot of readers – just about anyone, in fact, with an interest in the subcontinent, or anyone who’s looking for a good read in any setting as substantial and inclusive as the word “Tolstoyan” implies’

Alice K. Turner,
Washington Post

‘This is a writer who skilfully draws his readers into a deeper understanding of the essence of India. His words embody the smells, the tastes, the sounds and the intrinsic spirituality of this complex and contrasting world . . .
The House of Blue Mangoes
. . . is a weighty and deeply intelligent novel’

Susan Campbell,
Glasgow Herald

‘Gripping . . . a novel that intertwines the personal and the political, the individual and the historic . . .
The House of Blue Mangoes
is a polished and accomplished book’

Akash Kapur,
New York Times Book Review

‘A lavish tale that will evoke memories, of such other disparate predecessors as Forster’s
A Passage to India
and Vikram Seth’s
A Suitable Boy

Kirkus Reviews


The House of Blue Mangoes
. . . will remain an enduring landmark in fiction . . . Davidar’s pages [are] the boldest and the biggest after
Midnight’s Children

India Today

In loving memory of my mother
SUSHILA DAVIDAR

And for my wife
RACHNA SINGH

CONTENTS

COVER

PRAISE

DEDICATION

TITLE PAGE

MAP

FAMILY TREE

EPIGRAPH

BOOK I
CHEVATHAR

CHAPTER 1

CHAPTER 2

CHAPTER 3

CHAPTER 4

CHAPTER 5

CHAPTER 6

CHAPTER 7

CHAPTER 8

CHAPTER 9

CHAPTER 10

CHAPTER 11

CHAPTER 12

CHAPTER 13

CHAPTER 14

CHAPTER 15

CHAPTER 16

CHAPTER 17

CHAPTER 18

CHAPTER 19

CHAPTER 20

CHAPTER 21

CHAPTER 22

CHAPTER 23

CHAPTER 24

CHAPTER 25

CHAPTER 26

CHAPTER 27

CHAPTER 28

CHAPTER 29

CHAPTER 30

CHAPTER 31

BOOK II
DORAIPURAM

CHAPTER 32

CHAPTER 33

CHAPTER 34

CHAPTER 35

CHAPTER 36

CHAPTER 37

CHAPTER 38

CHAPTER 39

CHAPTER 40

CHAPTER 41

CHAPTER 42

CHAPTER 43

CHAPTER 44

CHAPTER 45

CHAPTER 46

CHAPTER 47

CHAPTER 48

CHAPTER 49

CHAPTER 50

CHAPTER 51

CHAPTER 52

CHAPTER 53

CHAPTER 54

CHAPTER 55

CHAPTER 56

CHAPTER 57

CHAPTER 58

CHAPTER 59

CHAPTER 60

CHAPTER 61

CHAPTER 62

CHAPTER 63

CHAPTER 64

CHAPTER 65

CHAPTER 66

CHAPTER 67

CHAPTER 68

CHAPTER 69

CHAPTER 70

CHAPTER 71

BOOK III
PULIMED

CHAPTER 72

CHAPTER 73

CHAPTER 74

CHAPTER 75

CHAPTER 76

CHAPTER 77

CHAPTER 78

CHAPTER 79

CHAPTER 80

CHAPTER 81

CHAPTER 82

CHAPTER 83

CHAPTER 84

CHAPTER 85

CHAPTER 86

CHAPTER 87

CHAPTER 88

CHAPTER 89

CHAPTER 90

CHAPTER 91

CHAPTER 92

CHAPTER 93

CHAPTER 94

CHAPTER 95

CHAPTER 96

CHAPTER 97

CHAPTER 98

CHAPTER 99

CHAPTER 100

CHAPTER 101

CHAPTER 102

CHAPTER 103

CHAPTER 104

CHAPTER 105

CHAPTER 106

EPILOGUE

AUTHOR’S NOTE

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

BY DAVID DAVIDAR

COPYRIGHT

FAMILY TREE

A land of miracles and fire

– Marina Tsvetayeva

BOOK I

CHEVATHAR

1

SPRING 1899. As the ordinary violence of dawn sweeps across the lower Coromandel coast, a sprawling village comes into view. The turbulent sky excepted, everything about it is tranquil. Away to the west, a great headland, thickly maned with coconut palms, juts into the sea, partially enclosing a deserted beach on which long slow swells, clear and smooth as glass, break with scarcely a sound. Beyond the beach, the waters of an estuary reflect the rage of colour overhead. This is where the Chevathar, the country’s southernmost river and the source of the village’s name, prepares for its final run to the sea.

On a bluff overlooking the estuary, almost hidden by coconut palms, is a small church. From there, the village straggles upriver for about a mile and a half, ending at the bridge that connects it to the town of Meenakshikoil on the opposite bank.

Through the village runs a narrow tarred road that stands out like a fresh scar on the red soil. The road connects all Chevathar’s major landmarks: the Vedhar quarter to the north, the ruins of an eighteenth-century mud fort, Vakeel Perumal’s two-storey house with its bone-white walls, the Amman and the Murugan temples, and on a slight elevation, the house of the thalaivar, Solomon Dorai, barely visible behind a fringe of casuarina trees and coconut palms. Surrounding the walls of the Big House, as it is known, are several trees that aren’t usually seen in the area – a tall umbrella-shaped rain tree, a bread-fruit tree with leaves that explode in green star-shaped clusters and many jackfruit trees laden with heavy, spiky fruit that spring directly from the trunk. These are the result of the labours of Charity Dorai, who does not come from these parts. In an effort to allay her homesickness she began planting trees from her homeland. Twenty years later they have altered the treescape of Chevathar.

Down to the river from the Big House tumble groves of Chevathar Neelam, a rare hybrid of a mango native to the south. The trees are astonishingly beautiful, the fruit glinting blue against the dark green leaves. The locals will tell you that the Chevathar Neelam, which has made the Dorai name famous throughout the district, is so sweet that after you’ve eaten one you cannot taste sugar for at least three days. So the locals say.

The rest of the village is quickly described. More coconut palms, the paracheri to the southwest, a few shops by the bridge over the Chevathar river, the huts of the Andavar tenant farmers close to the road, and a dozen or so wells and tanks that raise blind glittering eyes to the morning light.

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