Stolen Gods

Why are souls of the dead commissioned to correct disharmonies in the life of the living?’ Aman, Naseema and Ganeshan’s only son, goes missing. He returns six years later but is killed in a bus accident. As Naseema takes refuge in spirituality, Ganeshan discovers his son through poems he left behind. One day, the police show up at their door with a clue that connects Ganeshan to Vijay, a young boy who is beaten to death by the wardens of Ashaniketan, a notorious children’s home, from where he tried to escape. Ganeshan launches an investigation of his own and ropes in his friends Cawasji and Rishi for help, only to discover that the boy was not Vijay. Another boy disappeared from the orphanage, but no one noticed. Ganeshan follows the trail and eventually finds himself in a dhaba where lost children, nomads and refugees find haven. Naseema hides a basket of stones left by nomads in her garden. Seeta, a girl they thought they knew well is murdered, and they realise they didn’t know her at all. Personal grief starts to mirror the disquiet of a crumbling city, reason falters, faith is tested. In the world of Stolen Gods, the more one tries to stitch together the fabric of their lives the more they come apart at the seams. About the Author: Anand is the pseudonym of P. Sachidanandan, a Malayalam writer and thinker. A number of his books have been translated into English, including Govardhan’s Travels (2006) and The Book of Destruction (2012). He is the recipient of the 1997 Sahitya Akademi Award and three Kerala Sahitya Akademi Awards for story, novel and scholarly literature in 1981, 1985 and 1994, respectively. About the Translator: Chetana Sachidanandan is a biologist and scientist at CSIR-IGIB in Delhi. Her translation of Anand’s Malayalam novel Samharathinte Pustakam as The Book of Destruction was shortlisted for the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature in 2014.