Publisher's Synopsis
Beasts of Burden (Koveru Kazhudaigal) is Imayam's first novel. The changing times of a village unfold in telling detail through the eyes of Arkkoyam, a washer woman who saves a dalit community of agricultural labourers. Rich in ethnographic detail and native idiom, the narrative throws sharp insights into a lifestyle that has now passed. Arkkoyam, a woman of indomitable courage, the pillar of the family, valiantly fights for her rights, but amazingly enough displays an unshakeable, unquestioning belief in the oppressive caste system. Deeply compassionate yet shorn of sentimentality, Imayam captures with ringing poignancy the struggle of an individual trapped within the dilemma of changing times. Beasts of Burden is also a moving testament to dalit struggle as a whole. Imayam's trenchant, subverssive prose, totally uninhibited and startling, challenges the reader to contemporary Tamil fiction. Well-known translator Lakshmi Holmstrom brilliantly in English his powerful and original voice.
