I requested this book because it hit two of my ambitious targets:
- Male author
- Translated work
Despite actually studying a few years of basic Tamil in school, I cannot actually read an entire book in the language. This would probably be the closest I would get to reading one. It was an interesting book but not entirely my cup of tea. There are a few graphic details that I am usually better off not paying much attention to. The book is definitely something I would recommend to others to see what they would take away from it since nothing in it is precisely as it meets the eye.
The story is of the hard lifecycle of a goat. It begins with unknown ancestry and no knowledge of how it is left with an old goatherd and his wife. The goat is raised as a family pet, given preference since she is tiny and looks like she would not survive. This privileged life does not last too long. The narrative focuses on the fallibility of relationships in particular and life as a whole. There are a lot of more profound implications based on the background in which the goat (poonachi) grows to adulthood and ultimately passes on. It will make a great book club book since there is bound to be a lot of discussions about this seemingly simple tale.
I received an ARC thanks to NetGalley and the publishers but the review is completely based on my reading experience.
Superfluous Reading 