THE MIRACLE OF POSSESSION
With two cows and four mouths to feed, Nareshan can barely make ends meet selling milk to the inhabitants of Karuthupuzha. This is, until his daughter Sarasu is possessed by the demon-god Chaathan. Now, the faithful from all over Karuthupuzha and beyond visit him with money and gifts to receive Chaathan’s blessings. The sceptics, meanwhile, believe he is fooling everyone. But when one of them, Dasappan, member of the Communist Party and and atheist, loses his mind after loudly proclaiming that Chaathan is a farce, the people’s belief in a divine power residing in Sarasu in reinforced. Nareshan realises that his daughter’s possession might be the best thing to have happened to him. When the rich widow Ponnamma seeks help for her son Nanu, the fate of Nareshan and his family is to change forever. In The Oracle of Karuthupuzha, Manu Bhattathiri revisits the town of Karuthupuzha immortalised in The Town That Laughed and Savithri’s Special Room and Other Stories.
The Oracle of Karuthupuzha Manu Bhattathiri 312pp, ~699, Aleph