'The Blind Matriarch' by Namita Gokhale
A house teeming with stories, and one old lady who presides over it all
Published 29.09.21, 07:46 AM
From writer and co-founder of the Jaipur Literature Festival comes a new novel that unravels against the backdrop of the Covid-19 pandemic. Namita Gokhale’s latest book is woven around the character of Matangi Ma, the eponymous blind matriarch who keeps tabs on everything going on inside her big, bustling household. Surrounded by children and grandchildren, life in the big house was ambling along from one day to the next, when the pandemic struck. Forced together under one roof, and with no world outside to take refuge in, the story of this large joint family chronicles the deeply personal changes that we have all encountered in the last year and a half.
Reading Namita Gokhale is akin to sitting around a campfire and listening to stories. In The Blind Matriarch, she continues this tradition as she spins a tale around an old lady who, in many ways, is reminiscent of the quintessential grandmother figure that one often finds in Indian families.
— Upasya Bhowal
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