Challenge and charm in Coorg

Sarita Mandanna’s debut novel outlines the life of a feisty lady in the backdrop of the picturesque Coorg hills

BY PAWAN LUTHRA

Sarita Mandanna’s Tiger Hills created quite a stir prior to it even being published. It was reported that the book was sold to Penguin India for one of the highest sums paid to an Indian writer for a first novel. Not that Indian origin writers lack the spotlight, as can be seen from the careers of Salman Rushdie to Rohinton Mistry, or from Arundhati Roy to Amitav Ghosh - all writers of Indian origin who have continually enjoyed being in the limelight over the past few decades. Of the new writers, Chetan Bhagat and Jhumpa Lahiri have enjoyed moderate success, while the Sydney-educated Aravind Adiga went on to win the prestigious 2008 Man Booker Prize, the world’s most prestigious literary awards, for his novel The White Tiger.

Sarita Mandanna’s first novel weaves a great story, and is an easy and enjoyable read for the lazy summer weeks ahead.

Spanning 50 years, the book is set in Coorg at the turn of the nineteenth century. For Coorgites, it paints a beautiful picture of rolling hills with mists rising in the far distance, lush fields with beautiful flora and fauna. The Scotland of India, Coorg provides a picturesque landscape to the trials and challenges in the life of

Devi and the men in her life - her doting father, her forbidden love with Machua, her passionless marriage with Devanna and her two children, Nanju and Appu. As each of these relationships unravels, one gets closer to Devi and is exposed to her bitterness with life, her will to succeed and her desire to build a future with the ghost of her lover Machu, while living with her husband and son on their coffee plantations. From a shunned husband, scorned lover, betrayed mentor and favoured sibling, all the characters work into the unravelling of the storyline.

Sarita Mandanna’s first

The book begins with Devi’s spoilt childhood as the only girl child born in her family in the last six decades. In her childhood, she and Devanna are friends who become very close to each other. As they grow older Devanna’s friendship with Devi matures into love, whilst Devi herself sees Machu and decides she can’t marry anyone else. The love triangle is now in place. Meanwhile, Devanna suffers extreme bullying in boarding school which breaks him to the extent that even Devi becomes a victim of circumstances.