THE ROOF BENEATH THEIR FEET

A house both shelters and reveals secrets in this novel translated from Hindi.

Through a prism created by multiple viewpoints, Shree—who won the International Booker Prize for Tomb of Sand in 2022—delivers a compact novel exploring broad themes including grief, memory, and the truths of women’s lives. The complicated social ecosystem of the novel’s setting is sketched out, at first, by Bitva, an adult man struggling to accept the death of his beloved mother figure, Chachcho. Almost all the action of the story, both present and recalled, occurs under the rolling, uneven, and sealike roof of Laburnum House, a complex of hundreds of homes. Shortly after Chachcho’s death, to Bitva’s annoyance and discomfort, Lalna, a woman who had previously been part of the household, reappears and settles in. Carrying the narrative forward, Lalna relates episodes of her relationship with Bitva’s family, most particularly about her intense relationship with Chachcho. The strong bond between the two had been the subject of gossip within the community and the women often sought escape from prying eyes and stifling conventions by climbing to the undulating roof of the complex. Shree’s whimsical descriptions of life on the roof include references to the skylights which offered glimpses of the goings on below: real, imagined, and, in any event, gossiped about. (Doors seem to have ambiguous importance in the almost animate house, as well.) Doubts about Bitva’s parentage and heredity are alluded to, as are Lalna’s roles in the household and in Chachcho’s stultifying marriage. The more objective third-person narration of the novel’s conclusion invites readers to ponder the actual nature of these relationships. Differing displays of grief and affection are clearly drawn in this enigmatic and often liminal depiction of lives, loves, and losses, examined from various angles.

Intricate, subtle, nuanced, perceptive, rewarding.