Theeyoor Chronicles Read online

  JK: The novel’s premise is the investigation into suicides and disappearances, a theme that you have explored in your novella ‘Invisible Forests’ in Diary of a Malayali Madman. But by the time we reach the end, what is ultimately revealed is life itself, and its specific cultural and political contexts within Theeyoor. Could you talk about what interests you in this topic?

  NP: The idea of writing a novel based on suicide struck me because the village where I live was at that time talked about as a ‘suicide village’. There were many deaths by suicide due to various reasons and some in which the cause or reason was unknown. There were also other villages in Kerala which were being described in newspaper reports as ‘suicide villages’ because of a high number of suicides. So this was the premise that tempted me to write this novel. But as the writing progressed, other things crept in, and the novel became something akin to local history. It also became the saga of people fighting against death, passing through several ordeals. I am happy that the novel did not become an ode to death and suicide. Instead, I believe, it proclaims its allegiance to the human struggle to survive.

  The theme of suicide is still with me. It is something I know in detail. I have some ideas about the social and psychological issues behind it. I should write another novel on suicide. And I have an obligation to my brother who died by suicide twenty-six years ago. He was a noble soul, a misfit in this world. I myself was unable to fathom his sorrows.

  JK: Thank you for sharing that experience. As someone who has experienced the kind of turmoil that takes one to the abyss, I also know that it is not easy for others around us to fathom the causes or figure out how to help. As your translator, one of the things that attracted me to your work is how you explore the mental spaces and inner turmoil of your characters without judgement and with a keen sense of the sociopolitical and cultural contexts in which they live. I think this is reflected in the long list of characters whose life worlds are explored in detail in the novel, and in the idea of the history of a place emerging from the combined experiences of its people. How did you arrive at these characters? What were the motivating factors and imagination behind their creation?

  NP: I don’t depend upon my imagination for arriving at characters. They are real men and women. But I make several changes in the details of their lives, and imagine several incidents suitable for their lives and characters. The final result would be entirely different from the original men and women behind the characters. Even those based on whom I have moulded the characters would not be able to decipher the original.

  JK: Meanwhile, the narrator remains unnamed…

  NP: I didn’t feel it necessary to name the narrator.

  JK: When the novel was published in Madhyamam weekly, it was accompanied by illustrations by C. Bhagyanath whose work is reproduced here, as well as included in Diary of a Malayali Madman. Is it an artistic collaboration between the two of you?

  NP: Bhagyanath is at present the most respected illustrator in Malayalam literature, as well as a painter with a nationwide reputation. It is widely known among writers and readers in Malayalam that a novel serialized in a literary journal catches more attention if it is accompanied by Bhagyanath’s illustrations. I am happy and proud that the first novel that appeared with his illustrations was Theeyoor Rekhakal when it was serialized in Madhyamam. When the novella, Oru Malayali Bhranthante Diary (Diary of a Malayali Madman) was published, Bhagyanath’s illustrations were widely appreciated and praised. Later, another novella titled Kshouram (Barbering) also appeared with his illustrations. I love and respect this artist because his literary sensibility is as refined as his artistic sensibility. He gets involved in elaborate discussions with the author, and takes much pain to arrive at the figures most suited for the work. No one can ignore the beauty and energy of the creativity exhibited in his illustrations and paintings.

  About the Book

  A journalist goes to Theeyoor – ‘the land of fire’ – to investigate the unnaturally large number of suicides and disappearances there. Even after he finishes the assignment, however, Theeyoor refuses to leave his consciousness. And so, he decides to write its history, telling it through various documents: his own notes, the anecdotes told to him while researching the suicides, Wardha Gopalan’s book The History of Theeyoor, information provided by a local newspaper agent, personal papers of individuals, as well as some ‘incidents’ that the journalist himself imagines.

  In N. Prabhakaran’s masterful hands – and in Jayasree Kalathil’s brilliant translation – history, myth, facts, nature, political events, and the everyday concerns of ordinary people weave together into a story that is at once local and universal.

  About the Authors

  N PRABHAKARAN (b. 1952) is one of the major contemporary writers in Kerala, and has published over forty works – novels, poetry, plays, short-story collections, essays and a travelogue. He has won numerous awards for his writing, including: the Kerala Sangeetha Nataka Akademi Award in 1987; the Kerala Sahitya Akademi Award in 1988 and 1996; the EMS Memorial Trust Award, Munnad, in 2005; the Vaikom Muhammed Basheer Memorial Trust Award in 2009; the Malayatoor Award in 2010; the Muttathu Varky Literary Award for his contribution to Malayalam literature in 2012; the 2019 Crossword Book Award; and the Odakkuzhal Award in 2020.

  JAYASREE KALATHIL S translation of S. Hareesh’s Moustache won the JCB Prize for Literature in 2020. Her translation of N. Prabhakaran’s novellas, Diary of a Malayali Madman, won the 2019 Crossword Book Award for Indian Language Translation and was longlisted for the 2020 Mathrubhumi Book of the Year Award. She is the author of the children’s book, The Sackclothman (2009), which has been translated into Malayalam, Telugu and Hindi.

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  First published in English in India in 2021 by Harper Perennial

  An Imprint of HarperCollins Publishers

  A-75, Sector 57, Noida, Uttar Pradesh 201301, India

  www.harpercollins.co.in

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  Copyright for the original Malayalam text © N. Prabhakaran 1999

  English Translation Copyright © Jayasree Kalathil 2021

  P.S. Section Copyright © Jayasree Kalathil 2021

  Illustrations Copyright © Bhagyanath C. 2021

  P-ISBN: 978-93-5422-434-8

  Epub Edition © April 2021 ISBN: 978-93-5422-437-9

  This is a work of fiction and all characters and incidents described in this book are the product of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  N. Prabhakaran asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

  All rights reserved under The Copyright Act, 1957. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this ebook on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins Publishers India.

  Cover art: Bhagyanath C.

  Cover design: Amit Malhotra

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