Kaikeyi
Book description
AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A BOOK OF THE MONTH CLUB PICK • "MYTHIC RETELLING AT ITS BEST." (R. F. Kuang, author of Babel)
“With a graceful, measured elegance” (New York Times), this lyrical novel reimagines the life of the infamous queen from the ancient epic the Ramayana,…
Why read it?
2 authors picked Kaikeyi as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?
You know how Madeline Miller jazzed up Circe's tale? Well, Vaishnavi did just that for Kaikeyi.
It is uncanny how Indian Mythology has been ignored on the world stage for decades and suddenly two reimaginings, one on Ramayana (Kaikeyi) and one on Mahabharata (Sons of Darkness) hit the shelves in the same year. Coming to the book. Well, forget what you've heard about Queen Kaikeyi being the 'villain' – this book flips that script!
Kaikeyi is the badass feminist hero you didn't know you needed. Vaishnavi Patel's retelling gives her this awesome makeover, painting her as this brave woman fighting…
From Gourav's list on lifting the patriarchal veil off ancient heroines.
I absolutely loved this marvellous reworking of the Hindu epic The Ramayana, a familiar tale I heard every Diwali as a child. Kaikeyi takes no less a figure than the villainous stepmother of Prince Rama, who demands his exile, an event that culminates in a battle to overthrow Ravana, the demon king of Lanka. Patel’s reworking takes its cues from the original texts (there are hundreds of different versions) and spins a cleverly complex, nuanced tale of Kaikeyi as a proto-feminist heroine, trapped within a patriarchal system.
From Gita's list on myths beyond the Greco-Roman Canon.
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