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Theeyoor Chronicles
A novel about a fictitious town named Theeyoor in North Kerala, where a sudden spate of suicides and disappearances attracts a journalist who then begins to piece together a history of Theeyoor and its people.
- GenresFiction
300 pages, Paperback
Published January 1, 2021
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
June 18, 2021
Trigger warning: Suicide, violence.
Theeyoor Chronicles' intriguing premise is what lured me to the book. Initially, I was a bit sceptical; the subject seemed heavy and I wasn't sure it's something I'd want to get into right now. Nevertheless, I did. And I couldn't be happier, as this book might be one of my favourite 2021 releases.
In Theeyoor Chronicles, a journalist goes to Theeyoor, a fictional village in Kerala, to investigate the high number of suicides and disappearances there. However, even after he has finished his assignment, something about the incidents and the village nudges him to write the village's history. He thus pens Theeyoor's story based on his notes, the book 'The History of Theeyoor' written by historian Wardha Gopalan, anecdotes of the locals, and letters and journals of individuals, along with some incidents the journalist imagines himself.
An excellent amalgamation of history, myth, and facts, Theeyoor Chronicles, at its core, talks about the ordinary lives of ordinary people - their religious, cultural, political, and spiritual stances, their relationships with one another, their work, as well as their internal turmoil and more. While the story is set in a village in Kerala, it is at once universal, and relevant to the present times.
The book spans around the first nine decades of the twentieth century and has a vast number of characters. So much so that it was a bit hard for me to keep up with who's who, especially since many names were similar. As the stories of each of the characters unfold, several important historical events of both Kerala and India become crucial to the plot.
While some characters become part of the formation of the local cell of the Communist Party, some others are part of the 1940 Morazha strike. Several others' lives are entwined with the cholera epidemic in the 1940s or the Emergency in the late 1970s and early 1980s, and so on. Meanwhile, several political and cultural figures such as Mahatma Gandhi, A.K. Gopalan, and E.M.S Namboodiripad are mentioned in the novel.
N Prabhakaran is a master storyteller. One of the things I loved the most about the novel is its narrative style. While it's journalistic reporting on one hand, on the other, it is storytelling at its best. In one chapter you are reading a character's diary entry and in another, you are going through a letter written years ago. In yet another one, a character is telling their story in their own words. All this played a critical role in making this book a page-turner for me.
This book was originally published in Malayalam in 1999 as "Theeyoor Rekhakal." Jayasree Kalathil (who also translated S Hareesh's Meesa into Moustache) has done a splendid job in translating this into English. Furthermore, the illustrations in the book by C. Bhagyanath are out of the world.
I cannot recommend this book enough. It has a brilliant plot, great narration, and a slew of well-crafted characters. It opened my eyes to many aspects of Kerala's history, which I wasn't aware of. While I did some digging up of my own, the book comes with a brief summary of all the historical events mentioned in the novel, making it easier for readers to better understand the events.
More people need to know about this book and devour it for the love of literature and a brilliantly penned story, if nothing else. However, be warned that there are descriptions of suicide and violence in the book that could be triggering to some.
Theeyoor Chronicles' intriguing premise is what lured me to the book. Initially, I was a bit sceptical; the subject seemed heavy and I wasn't sure it's something I'd want to get into right now. Nevertheless, I did. And I couldn't be happier, as this book might be one of my favourite 2021 releases.
In Theeyoor Chronicles, a journalist goes to Theeyoor, a fictional village in Kerala, to investigate the high number of suicides and disappearances there. However, even after he has finished his assignment, something about the incidents and the village nudges him to write the village's history. He thus pens Theeyoor's story based on his notes, the book 'The History of Theeyoor' written by historian Wardha Gopalan, anecdotes of the locals, and letters and journals of individuals, along with some incidents the journalist imagines himself.
An excellent amalgamation of history, myth, and facts, Theeyoor Chronicles, at its core, talks about the ordinary lives of ordinary people - their religious, cultural, political, and spiritual stances, their relationships with one another, their work, as well as their internal turmoil and more. While the story is set in a village in Kerala, it is at once universal, and relevant to the present times.
The book spans around the first nine decades of the twentieth century and has a vast number of characters. So much so that it was a bit hard for me to keep up with who's who, especially since many names were similar. As the stories of each of the characters unfold, several important historical events of both Kerala and India become crucial to the plot.
While some characters become part of the formation of the local cell of the Communist Party, some others are part of the 1940 Morazha strike. Several others' lives are entwined with the cholera epidemic in the 1940s or the Emergency in the late 1970s and early 1980s, and so on. Meanwhile, several political and cultural figures such as Mahatma Gandhi, A.K. Gopalan, and E.M.S Namboodiripad are mentioned in the novel.
N Prabhakaran is a master storyteller. One of the things I loved the most about the novel is its narrative style. While it's journalistic reporting on one hand, on the other, it is storytelling at its best. In one chapter you are reading a character's diary entry and in another, you are going through a letter written years ago. In yet another one, a character is telling their story in their own words. All this played a critical role in making this book a page-turner for me.
This book was originally published in Malayalam in 1999 as "Theeyoor Rekhakal." Jayasree Kalathil (who also translated S Hareesh's Meesa into Moustache) has done a splendid job in translating this into English. Furthermore, the illustrations in the book by C. Bhagyanath are out of the world.
I cannot recommend this book enough. It has a brilliant plot, great narration, and a slew of well-crafted characters. It opened my eyes to many aspects of Kerala's history, which I wasn't aware of. While I did some digging up of my own, the book comes with a brief summary of all the historical events mentioned in the novel, making it easier for readers to better understand the events.
More people need to know about this book and devour it for the love of literature and a brilliantly penned story, if nothing else. However, be warned that there are descriptions of suicide and violence in the book that could be triggering to some.
June 12, 2021
Theeyoor Chronicles
Written by N Prabhakaran. Translated by Jayasree Kalathil
Theeyoor Chronicles takes the readers into a curiously serene journey into the fictional village in Kerala and headfist into the simple yet happening lives of ordinary people. The narrator who ventures into the village to investigate the alarming number of strange suicides ends up chronicling the history of Theeyoor spanning eight to nine decades.
There is politics, realistic ebb and flow of romance, history and even superstitions interspered into this charming little read. We encounter Gandhiji, Indira Gandhi, AKG, EMS, and a few other affluent figures of Indian and Kerala politics through the lives of these villagers. The narrator uses his research, the anecdotes he hears, diary entries, letters as sources to chronicle the strange flow of life in this enigmatic village.
The amazing translation by Jayasree, acclaimed for her translation of S. Hareesh's 'Meesa' (Moustache) retains the original essence while leaving the readers marveling at the quaint charm of the english version.
To me the book was a comforting welcome into the folds of the old habit that I really really missed.
Written by N Prabhakaran. Translated by Jayasree Kalathil
Theeyoor Chronicles takes the readers into a curiously serene journey into the fictional village in Kerala and headfist into the simple yet happening lives of ordinary people. The narrator who ventures into the village to investigate the alarming number of strange suicides ends up chronicling the history of Theeyoor spanning eight to nine decades.
There is politics, realistic ebb and flow of romance, history and even superstitions interspered into this charming little read. We encounter Gandhiji, Indira Gandhi, AKG, EMS, and a few other affluent figures of Indian and Kerala politics through the lives of these villagers. The narrator uses his research, the anecdotes he hears, diary entries, letters as sources to chronicle the strange flow of life in this enigmatic village.
The amazing translation by Jayasree, acclaimed for her translation of S. Hareesh's 'Meesa' (Moustache) retains the original essence while leaving the readers marveling at the quaint charm of the english version.
To me the book was a comforting welcome into the folds of the old habit that I really really missed.
December 12, 2021
Professor Michael Halliburton, a well-respected medical anthropologist, had written a paper in 1998 entitled Suicide: A Paradox of Development in Kerala, in which he had set out to examine why a state that boasted of the highest literacy in India as well as impressive socio-economic development, could also have the highest suicide figures in the country. Back when Halliburton wrote his paper, the suicide rate in Kerala was thrice the national average. An unsettling fact, and one that seems at odds with the generally held belief of an idyllic God’s Own Country.
N Prabhakaran’s Theeyoor Rekhakal was published in 1999. A novel about a journalist who goes to a north Kerala village named Theeyoor, which has earned the dubious distinction of having an unparalleled number of suicides, Theeyoor Rekhakal has now been translated into English (by Jayasree Kalathil) and published as Theeyoor Chronicles. This is a novel built up like a piece of non-fiction: it gives the impression of something between reportage and the narrator’s imagination, as the unnamed journalist (who is the narrator) goes to Theeyoor and tries to discover the reasons behind the many suicides.
What he unearths as he goes about, talking to people, discovering the past, is not so much an account of suicides, but of deaths in general—and, equally importantly, of the lives that preceded those deaths. From the long-ago diaries of a dying man, or from the reminiscences of a man reputed to work miracles and heal the seemingly incurable, he learns more about Theeyoor (which literally means ‘the land of fire’). Through a series of chapters, the tales of many lives unfold. Lives that entwine with each other, lives which sometimes have only a fleeting contact with Theeyoor and its people before going their way. And the people themselves are a varied lot: from a wealthy man who runs a ‘blade’ business, lending money; to a ‘holy man’ who seems to possess powers of divine healing. From a prostitute to a college student to an ardent communist… these are interesting people, yet believable people.
N Prabhakaran sets these characters against a backdrop of the political events in Kerala (and to a degree, in other parts of India as well). Across a period of a little less than a century, Theeyoor Chronicles chronicles the freedom movement and the role of the Congress; the rise of the communist movement and the subsequent split of the Communists into the CPI and the CPI (M). The growing influence of the BJP, to the extent of people travelling to Ayodhya from Kerala to participate in the demolition of the Babri Masjid.
More than a novel, this is a series of vignettes. There is no single plot, with little binding the chapters together, besides a common geographical setting (which, too, is at least part fictitious: Theeyoor is based on Prabhakaran’s home village near Kannur). And yet, Prabhakaran writes so well, his characters and his setting are so alive, that the book remains interesting, gripping: almost as if one really were seeing the lives of these people unfold.
Jayasree Kalathil’s translation is a pleasure to read, and the appendices to the book help in a better understanding of it. The Translator’s Note and the second appendix, the Political Background, especially go a long way in furthering an appreciation of Theeyoor Chronicles for readers who may not be familiar with the political history of Kerala in the 20th century.
(From my review for The New Indian Express: https://www.newindianexpress.com/life...)
N Prabhakaran’s Theeyoor Rekhakal was published in 1999. A novel about a journalist who goes to a north Kerala village named Theeyoor, which has earned the dubious distinction of having an unparalleled number of suicides, Theeyoor Rekhakal has now been translated into English (by Jayasree Kalathil) and published as Theeyoor Chronicles. This is a novel built up like a piece of non-fiction: it gives the impression of something between reportage and the narrator’s imagination, as the unnamed journalist (who is the narrator) goes to Theeyoor and tries to discover the reasons behind the many suicides.
What he unearths as he goes about, talking to people, discovering the past, is not so much an account of suicides, but of deaths in general—and, equally importantly, of the lives that preceded those deaths. From the long-ago diaries of a dying man, or from the reminiscences of a man reputed to work miracles and heal the seemingly incurable, he learns more about Theeyoor (which literally means ‘the land of fire’). Through a series of chapters, the tales of many lives unfold. Lives that entwine with each other, lives which sometimes have only a fleeting contact with Theeyoor and its people before going their way. And the people themselves are a varied lot: from a wealthy man who runs a ‘blade’ business, lending money; to a ‘holy man’ who seems to possess powers of divine healing. From a prostitute to a college student to an ardent communist… these are interesting people, yet believable people.
N Prabhakaran sets these characters against a backdrop of the political events in Kerala (and to a degree, in other parts of India as well). Across a period of a little less than a century, Theeyoor Chronicles chronicles the freedom movement and the role of the Congress; the rise of the communist movement and the subsequent split of the Communists into the CPI and the CPI (M). The growing influence of the BJP, to the extent of people travelling to Ayodhya from Kerala to participate in the demolition of the Babri Masjid.
More than a novel, this is a series of vignettes. There is no single plot, with little binding the chapters together, besides a common geographical setting (which, too, is at least part fictitious: Theeyoor is based on Prabhakaran’s home village near Kannur). And yet, Prabhakaran writes so well, his characters and his setting are so alive, that the book remains interesting, gripping: almost as if one really were seeing the lives of these people unfold.
Jayasree Kalathil’s translation is a pleasure to read, and the appendices to the book help in a better understanding of it. The Translator’s Note and the second appendix, the Political Background, especially go a long way in furthering an appreciation of Theeyoor Chronicles for readers who may not be familiar with the political history of Kerala in the 20th century.
(From my review for The New Indian Express: https://www.newindianexpress.com/life...)
July 16, 2021
I'll admit, I didn't expect I'd enjoy this book. But Theeyoor Chronicles is this sweeping tale of a people from a hamlet in Kerala spread over several decades, told so tellingly that it draws you into its fold like a grandmother telling a fantastical tale from long ago. Numerous lives unfold as a cross-section of society set in the backdrop of major sociopolitical events of twentieth century India, narrating ever-present tales of sorrow, love, loneliness, magic, death, and the human condition. I felt like one could create a map of Theeyoor by the end, with all its fields, bylanes, markets, rocky promontories, temples, and houses scattered across the landscape. This is an important book for the way it combines history, myth-making, and various genres of literature (including poetry, letters, and diary entries) and modes of storytelling into a compelling read of modernist Malayalam literature and I'm glad I picked it up. Future re-readings are sure to yield deeper insights and connections within these stories, and I look forward to them.
October 13, 2024
Think of it like this: Imagine someone telling you about their family history. They might start with a recent event, then jump back to their grandparent’s generation, then talk about their own childhood, then back to their parent’s struggles... It wouldn't be a neat timeline, but you'd gradually build an understanding of their family. That's how Theeyoor Chronicles unfolds.
The premise of the book is really intriguing, a journalist arriving in Theeyoor to investigate the suicides and disappearances. This sets up the mystery and a quest to understand the village. But as the book progresses you actually realize the book is a blend of historical fiction, reportage, and the journalist's own imagination.
And the narrative style is fragmented.
We get glimpses of Theeyoor's founding and early years through a mix of sources -excerpts from "The History of Theeyoor" (a book within the book), old letters and journal entries and vague stories passed down by villagers.
Then the narrative shifts to focus on specific people in Theeyoor, often jumping between different time periods in their lives. We might meet someone as a child, then later as an adult facing struggles. Stories are interlinked, showing how characters connect across generations.
Major events like the rise of communism, the Morazha strike, and political changes in Kerala run through the narrative like a thread, providing a glimpse into the grassroots-level changes that shaped the region in the 90s.
The journalist leaves Theeyoor with unanswered questions, leaving the reader to contemplate the complex interplay of historical, social, and personal factors that contribute to the village's tragic fate. Theeyoor Chronicles is a more literary and introspective work that prioritizes atmosphere, character exploration, and social commentary over a traditional plot-driven narrative.
The premise of the book is really intriguing, a journalist arriving in Theeyoor to investigate the suicides and disappearances. This sets up the mystery and a quest to understand the village. But as the book progresses you actually realize the book is a blend of historical fiction, reportage, and the journalist's own imagination.
And the narrative style is fragmented.
We get glimpses of Theeyoor's founding and early years through a mix of sources -excerpts from "The History of Theeyoor" (a book within the book), old letters and journal entries and vague stories passed down by villagers.
Then the narrative shifts to focus on specific people in Theeyoor, often jumping between different time periods in their lives. We might meet someone as a child, then later as an adult facing struggles. Stories are interlinked, showing how characters connect across generations.
Major events like the rise of communism, the Morazha strike, and political changes in Kerala run through the narrative like a thread, providing a glimpse into the grassroots-level changes that shaped the region in the 90s.
The journalist leaves Theeyoor with unanswered questions, leaving the reader to contemplate the complex interplay of historical, social, and personal factors that contribute to the village's tragic fate. Theeyoor Chronicles is a more literary and introspective work that prioritizes atmosphere, character exploration, and social commentary over a traditional plot-driven narrative.
October 29, 2021
Interlinked Anecdotes, forming a story/happenings in a village. Had its own moments but can't really say that i enjoyed. Too much irrelevant information, too much unnecessary characters, Read it just to finish it. Gave me nothing at all.
January 18, 2025
Interesting characters and stories but lacks flow. And not always clear where all the suicides mentioned at the start fit in.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews