ISBN: 9780670086511    Publisher: Penguin Year of publishing: 2013     Format:  Paperback No of Pages: 248        Language: English

All of Kali and Ponna's efforts to conceive a child-from prayers to penance, potions to pilgrimages-have been in vain. Despite being in a loving and sexually satisfying relationship, they are relentlessly hounded by the taunts and insinuations of the people around them. Ultimately, all their hopes and apprehensions come to converge on the chariot festival in the temple of the half-female god Ardhanareeswara and the revelry surrounding it. Everything hinges on the one night when rules are relaxed and consensual union between any man and woman is sanctioned. This night could end the couple's suffering and humiliation. But it will also put their marriage to the ultimate test. Acutely observed, One Part Woman lays bare with unsparing clarity a relationship caught between the dictates of social convention and the tug of personal anxieties, vividly conjuring an intimate and unsettling portrait of marriage, love and sex.
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Perumal Murugan is a well-known contemporary Tamil writer and poet. He was written six novels, four collections of short stories and four anthologies of poetry. Two of his novels have been translated into English to wide acclaim: Seasons of the Palm, which was shortlisted for the prestigious Kiriyama Award in 2005 and Current Show. He has received awards from the Tamil Nadu government as well as from Katha Books. Aniruddhan Vasudevan is a performer, writer, translator and activist based in Chennai. He has written for the New Indian Express, Media Voice and Kalachuvadu. He also documents various public health projects and art projects and is involved in LGBT advocacy work. He is currently a graduate student in anthropology at the University of Texas, Austin and is also working on his first novel.
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