The God of Small Things is Arundhati Roy's first novel. Ms. Roy creates " a richly layered story of familial betraval and thwarted romantic passion by cutting back and forth between time present and time past. Set in southern India against a backdrop of traditional religious and caste taboos, her story depicts the tragic confluence of events - both personal and political, provate and public- that bring about the murder of an innocent man and the dissolution of a family."
Ms. Roy grew up in Kerala, India.