Lanthan batheriyile luthiniyakal

Recently I happened to read an outstanding piece of literary work, first published in 2003 "Lanthanbatteriyile Luthiniyakal" by a prodigious writer N S Madhavan. The novel is simply different in its story and presents a rich world, a world which was out of reach of the malayalam readers as very few books have been made on this particular world, the author talks about.
'The dutch battery' situated near Kochi is said to br a built on island by some british captains on Kochi. The descendands of the anglo indians, the judes and also the natives live here.
The author presents a superb portrayal of a diverse plot built on this island with sea as a major character.This novel can be said to be a classic not only because it deals with a self describing plot but also because of the authors lucid writing style.The author describes the life of Kanakkukatathil Jessica, daughter of Mathevus Achari. Mathevus is a very well known carpenter who makes boats and all. He got the knowledge of this job from his father Kanakkukattathil Markose who gained his from Louis, his father.This novel has a rich content of a variant and vibrant culture.
The plot which is placed in the 1950s, actually stretches across centuries through generations. From this point of view and as the novel is so vivid and deals with so many different social and historical issues and represents a changing era with sufficient grandeur I take a reviewer's freedom to compare this novel with "100 years of solitude" by the nobel winner Garzia Marquez.
The life of Jessica, her birth, childhood and adolescence is described in this story. Things twist as Markose who was believed to be dead, going out in the sea, returns. Jessica who is portrayed as rational, turns out to be in close terms with her grandfather. He denies the attempt pf Jessica's parents to send her to Kochi to continue her studies. Instead she was given private tutions from Pushpangadan. He tries to exploit her and as Jessica protests and the news spreads. Pushpangadan commits sucide and the whole islands tarts to believe that he was innocent. The accuser turns out to be guilty and thus continues the story...

This novel is significant as it deals with all the social develoopments of a period- advent of films, transistor, independence of india, communism, the liberation strike , hindustani music and chavittunatakam, a classic stage performance resembling the european opera. All in all, this is an outstanding piece of literary work and is a must read novel.