Top News

Booker Prize-shortlisted author Avni Doshi’s new novel, The First House, is here. And it is magnificent. A terrifying story of heartbreak, humiliation, and total annihilation of the self, the novel burns through the skin, scorching the very heart.

The novel starts with the narrator’s husband asking for a divorce. She had believed them to be reasonably happy, but after two daughters, the husband would beg to differ. The reasons are the usual – he feels trapped, he’s bored, the wife is too much. She proceeds to remind him of his responsibilities, especially towards his children. It’s a deadlock. The marriage is over.

It happens at a time of cicadas bursting out of their cocoons and the couple’s planets behaving erratically. The end of the marriage, in these circumstances, is presented almost like a natural occurrence.

The immediate aftermath comprises dealing with the children, the possibility of the husband’s having an affair, the narrator’s work-in-progress novel facing yet another setback, and, worst of all, money troubles. Panic shot through me each time the narrator’s credit card was declined (it is managed by her husband) and she dug around for cash. This is the most humiliating position a woman can be in, no matter how good or bad the...

Read more