Once Upon a Time

Brinda is born into a traditional joint family, but beneath the ordinary surface her life is anything but ordinary. She remembers in detail events that happened before she was born. Anyone who touches her is cured of sickness, rot and corruption. She is brutalised again and again yet only grows more beautiful, and she stays untouched, unable to be physically intimate even with the man she loves.

One day she is arrested without any charge and moved from prison to prison. In a world where time and history are as fluid as her memory, she remains radiantly young while the people around her age and decay. As both witness and victim, she lives through the horrors of a society sinking into superstition and intolerance.

In the end she faces a farcical trial in which every part of her past is shown to the court in a darker light, before a tragic conclusion. This multi-layered fairy tale for adults comes close to some of the harshest cruelties of our times. It is Ashok Srinivasan's debut novel, following his prize-winning short story collection Book of Common Signs.