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Silent Witness
by Anuradha is a historical fiction set in the Seventeenth Century India. It is
set in the beautiful Kerala, to be more precise, where the Sammudris of
Kozhikode, the Rajas of Kochi and the Portuguese were all trying to gain the
majority foothold. With the politics of the kingdom and the Portuguese
conspiracies proves to be too much as the Crown Prince Kerala Varma and his
brother is forced to go into hiding. In his quest for survival and also finding
potential allies, Kerala Varma meets and falls in love with Unnimaya. Finally,
with the help of the Dutch, Kerala Varma plans to win back his throne and title
but will his love for Unnimaya be his strength or a hindrance?
The author has
a knack for weaving a beautiful story. The book has quite a few characters as
part of each of the camps represented in the story. I will admit it though that
it took me some time to get into the flow of the story where I could understand
and identify each character by its name. Then again, I have always been weak
with names. So, this may not be an issue for others. It would have been very
easy to complicate the story and confuse the readers. Instead the threads of
the story are well interwoven to make it more interesting to the readers than
anything else. The narrative felt smooth and it maintained the pace well
enough. The main characters have been developed well. I could feel myself
liking and disliking particular characters as I am sure the author meant it to
be. The politics, the drama, the romance… each element of the plot has added to
it and created a web that keeps the readers indulged.
The book has
some illustrations that I found interesting. I am not sure if they add anything
to the story itself, but felt like were there more for the aesthetics. As I
have not read the original version of the book, it wouldn’t be fair of me to
comment on the translation. All, I can say that while reading, at no point did
I feel odd or as if something was missing which is usually a positive for the
translator.
Review Copy received from Jaico Publishing House
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