The God of Small Things, the debut novel of Indian architect (Suzanna) Arundhati Roy, was published in 1997. A family tragedy centered on the emotional and psychological evolution of fraternal twins Rahel and Estha Ipe, the novel, set in Ayemenem, a remote coastal town in the state of Kerala in southwestern India, shuttles between events in 1969—when the twins, age seven, are involved in the accidental drowning of their British cousin—and more than 25 years later, when the twins reunite as emotionally damaged adults. The novel uses an intricate architecture of flashbacks, memories, poetic dream sequences, interior monologues, and flashforwards to capture the tensions and sorrows of multiple generations of this middle-class Indian family caught up within the social pressures of a modern caste system. The novel became an international best seller and received the prestigious Man Booker Prize. The study guide uses the 2017 Random House paperback edition.

Plot Summary

The plot is grounded in the relationship between two sets of siblings in the Ipe family, first Ammu and her brother Chacko, and then Ammu’s fraternal twins, a boy, Esthappen, known as Estha, and a girl, Rahel. As teens, both Ammu and Chacko are eager to leave what they see as the dead-end life of their remote town of Ayemenem. Chacko fancies himself an intellectual and a bon vivant and departs to study political theory at Oxford. There, he meets a waitress named Margaret. They marry and have a daughter they name Sophie. When the marriage crumbles—Margaret falls in love with another man and divorces Chacko—Chacko, charged up with revolutionary ideas about the workability of communism, returns home determined to make over the family’s struggling chutney business.

Ammu leaves for Calcutta when she is 17. She marries Baba, a tea factory manager, who turns out to be a violent and abusive drunk. Shortly after Ammu delivers twins, she leaves her husband and returns home with her children. Divorced and a single mother, she is now a disgrace in the eyes of her conservative family.

When the twins are seven, Chacko receives word that Margaret’s second husband has been killed in a car accident. Margaret is devastated. Chacko invites his ex-wife and daughter to visit Ayemenem over the approaching Christmas holiday. On the day the two are to arrive, the family loads up the car to attend a theater showing of The Sound of Music and then the next morning head to the airport to pick up Margaret and Sophie. On the way, the car is swarmed by a massive communist street parade. The family is horrified by the noisy, flag-waving crowd. Among the rioters, the family thinks they see Velutha, a carpenter and general maintenance worker at the family’s factory. Velutha is a Paravan, considered an untouchable within the strict code of the country’s caste system. At the movie, Estha, who loves the catchy music, is dispatched to the back of the theater because he cannot refrain from singing along at the top of his voice. In the lobby, he is molested by a creepy man who runs the snack counter. He tells no one.

Rahel, initially happy to see her British cousin, quickly comes to resent the attention the pretty girl gets. Rahel seeks the advice and comfort of Velutha, known by the twins for his quiet wisdom and uncomplicated compassion. While the girl chats with Velutha, Ammu first takes notice of the young, strapping Black man. Several days later, as Christmas approaches, Estha, certain that the molester in the theater will come back, determines he must run away. He and Rahel find an old boat abandoned along the shore of the nearby Meenachal River. They tell Sophie about their plans to cross the river and take shelter in an abandoned house known as History House. Eager for an adventure, she begs to go with them. The day the children plan to leave, however, news reaches the family of an ongoing affair between Ammu and Velutha, forbidden under India’s so-called Law of Love. Outraged, Ammu’s family forbids the love-struck Ammu from seeing Velutha and even locks her in her room. She loudly bewails her life, including damning the gods for burdening her with the twins. Spurred by their mother’s words, the twins depart with Sophie in tow. Crossing the turbulent Meenachal, however, the tiny boat collides with a log and capsizes. Sophie drowns. The twins struggle to shore and seek refuge in the abandoned History House along the river, where coincidentally Ammu and Velutha had been meeting for their trysts. Velutha, now on the run, has also sought refuge in the house.

With the discovery of Sophie’s body and the disappearance of the twins, the family blames Velutha, accusing him of raping Ammu (that will spare the family the disgrace of the affair) and then of kidnapping the children and murdering Sophie. Without any evidence, the local police arrest Velutha at the History House. While the children watch helplessly, the police viciously beat Velutha. Even though the twins tell the police that Velutha is innocent, it is too late. Velutha dies in jail that night. Under the malevolent influence of their great aunt, Baby Kochamma, who has a paranoid vendetta against Velutha, the children never reveal the truth to the family and later lie to the police. Chacko, grieving over his daughter’s death, banishes Ammu and then exiles Estha, whom he blames for the accident, to the care of the boy’s abusive and alcoholic father. Ammu, dishonored and disgraced, dies of complications from lung cancer a few years later. Rahel completes high school with some difficulty and then heads to America to study architecture. She marries indifferently and then just as indifferently divorces.

In the narrative present, set in 1993, Rahel, having learned that Estha has at last returned to Ayemenem, flies home to reunite with her emotionally troubled twin. She finds her brother living a solitary life, haunted by his responsibility for the deaths of both Sophie and Velutha and still plagued by the trauma of his molestation. Estha has never married. He seldom speaks, and when Rahel visits, he is given to long walks along the river far from anybody. The two, tormented by the past, rekindle their closeness during rambling, reckless conversations. In a moment of vulnerability and desperate need, the two consummate their feelings. The taboo act of incest, at once shocking and redemptive, gives them the consolation they never found with anyone else.