Lakshmi’s Secret Diary is a surprising, compelling, and moving novel from a gifted storyteller set in Pondicherry, the former capital of French India.
In This Spotlight On Lakshmi’s Secret Diary
About Lakshmi’s Secret Diary
Seeking to escape captivity, Lakshmi the temple elephant sets out on a stirring journey toward freedom. On her way, she briefly experiences life as a film star and encounters a colorful cast including a three-legged dog named Tripod Dog Baba, other elephants in the Bandipur Forest, a chameleon facing an existential crisis, a moon who dances with an elephant, and a flying fish called Alphonse.
Lakshmi’s Secret Diary is a remarkable Indian Francophone novel set in Pondicherry, the former capital of French India. Blending philosophical meditations, retellings of Sanskrit mythology, and social critique, Ari Gautier tells the story of Lakshmi’s attempt to escape her fate.
From the point of view of animals, the novel explores concepts of destiny, freedom, and identity. It illuminates the paradoxes of animal-human relations in India, where animals are both abused and worshiped, and provides an imaginative critique of the caste system. Gautier’s vivid portrait of Pondicherry brings to life the religious, cultural, culinary, and visual diversity of the city’s districts and sheds light on the little-known history of French colonialism in India.
An afterword explores issues such as reincarnation and Indian translation traditions in relation to the novel. At once tragic and comic, satirical and surreal, Lakshmi’s Secret Diary is a surprising, compelling, and moving novel from a gifted storyteller.
ISBN-13: 9780231212052
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Publication date: 08/20/2024
Source: Publisher
Praise for Lakshmi’s Secret Diary
“What a magnificent and original novel, introducing the reader to a dreamlike world where the nature of India plays a major role.”—Maryse Condé, author of Segu and I, Tituba, Black Witch of Salem
“This is a tale that goes back through the ages, but that reaches out to us, now, as we subjugate nature to our own ends. Filled with humor, it is nonetheless heart-breaking.”—Ananda Devi, author of The Living Days
“Fusing history, memory, mythology, and the immediate present, Lakshmi’s Secret Diary is Ari Gautier’s gift to a lost humankind. Meditative and melancholy, whimsical and funny, it breaks free of its location in colonial Pondicherry to meditate on the human condition, on fate and freedom and choice. It lingers long after you’ve read it.”—Geetanjali Shree, International Booker Prize-winning author of Tomb of Sand
“Translating a text as subtly complex as Ari Gautier’s Lakshmi’s Secret Diary with the litheness of Sheela Mahadevan’s English is a considerable accomplishment. In her translation, Gautier’s Pondichéry is rich with unforgettable characters, history, and wisdom.”—Matt Reeck, translator of Muslim: A Novel
About Ari Gautier, Author of Lakshmi’s Secret Diary
Ari Gautier is an Indian Francophone writer and poet from the former French Indian territory of Pondicherry, now based in Norway. One of the few contemporary Indian writers who adopts French as a primary literary language, he is also the author of the novel Le Thinnai and the short story collection Nocturne Pondichéry.
You can find and follow Ari Gautier on his website, on Facebook, and on X.
About Dr. Sheela Mahadevan, Translator Of Lakshmi’s Secret Diary
Dr. Sheela Mahadevan (the translator) is lecturer in French and Francophone studies at the University of Liverpool. She taught both French and Comparative Literature programmes at King’s College London. She is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. Her research interests include Translation Studies (theory, history and practice of translation), literary multilingualism, and contemporary Francophone literatures.
Titles by Ari Gautier
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