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$20.00
About This Book
‘With [Snowed Under] our expat writer Nirmala has gifted the Malayalam language with one of the most original creations in the field of the modern Malayalam novel.’—Paul Zacharia ‘No other Malayalam novel has recreated the struggles of surviving cancer with such imaginative force and intensity.’—Dr Shaji Jacob, professor and literary critic Ashwini Ram is a successful engineer in Canada. She has a good job, a loving husband and daughter, and a carefully planned life. Then, one snow-choked winter day, she discovers a tiny lump in her right breast. What follows is a journey she never expected to take: doctor’s visits, tests, the shock of diagnosis, surgery, chemotherapy, radiation. Her body changes. Her moods change. Her husband retreats into a silence she cannot reach, her daughter grows distant in the demands of her medical studies, and even friends who once couldn’t do without her now appear to be keeping their distance. Ashwini’s thoughts spiral in directions she cannot always control as fear, anger, denial, loneliness, imaginary friends and dark humour take turns shaping her empty days. Set against the cold landscapes of Canada and the quiet routines of immigrant life, Snowed Under captures the emotional reality of living with cancer—the waiting, the medical procedures, the stigma that surrounds the illness and the strain it places on the closest relationships. First published as Manjil Oruval, this is not just a story about disease, but about the mind under pressure, the body under siege, and the complicated—some?times fragile—will to live. Radhika P. Menon’s sensitive English translation brings this powerful and unusual Malayalam novel to a wider readership.
About The Author
Nirmala Thomas has lived in Canada for the past forty years and has published numerous books in Malayalam. She is the most widely read Malayalam writer based in Canada. Her work centres largely on the lives of immigrants in North America. In 2011, she received the ‘Best Short Story Collection’ award for writers living outside India from the Government of Kerala, for Ningal Enne Feministaakki (You Made a Feminist of Me). The Thakazhi Award, the MAM Literary Award, the Ponjikkara Rafi Award, the Ankanam Award and the LANA Literary Award are among the other honours she has received. Nirmala’s work has appeared in the Kerala Sahitya Akademi’s Literary Survey and in Feeling Kerala (a short story collection translated by J. Devika). She has been a member of the Toronto Film Festival, the Writers’ Union of Canada, GritLit Canada, the Hamilton Media Advisory Council and the Advisory Committee for Immigrants and Refugees. Radhika P. Menon has translated several works from Malayalam to English. The most notable ones are K. Madhavan’s On the Banks of the Tejaswini (NBT), Devaki Nilayangode’s Antharjanam (OUP), S.K. Pottekkatt’s Tales of Athiranippadam (Orient BlackSwan) and In the Land of the Kappiris (CUP), Moyarath Sankaran’s Autobiography of a Freedom Fighter and Martyr (Chinta), M.K. Sanoo’s Dr Palpu: The Champion of Justice (Open Door Media), Joseph Muliyil’s Sukumari (Folio), Sebastian Joseph’s Naxal Varghese: Take-Off and Tailspin (Dream Bookbindery) and Dr Sosamma Iype’s The Vechur Cow: A New Lease of Life (Vechur Conservation Trust). Her translations of N.N. Pillai’s autobiography (Yours Truly) and Appukuttan Vallikunnu’s The Unknown EMS are forthcoming. She won the ICWT (International Center for Writing and Translation Award) of the University of California, Irvine in 2011 for Tales of Athiranippadam, along with Sreedevi K. Nair.
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