Blackened

The Adhikarathil family of Malabar in Kerala had long enjoyed wealth and standing, with a reputation close to that of royalty. Its Christian forebears were known for their fair skin, so when a boy named Eranimos was born dark-skinned, the family and everyone around it were shaken. Whispers and bitter speculation about his parentage followed him from the start.

Blackened follows Eranimos as he tries to learn the truth about his complexion and the caste identity that comes with it. His search is also a journey through Kerala's wider past. Along the way the novel takes in caste conflict, large waves of religious conversion and migration, rival belief systems, and the divide between village and city life.

The book was first published in Malayalam as Karikkottakkary. It is a coming-of-age story that traces the whole arc of a conflicted life, and it shows how a single family's history is bound up with the larger currents that shape communities and decide people's fates.