The Roof Beneath Their Feet by Geetanjali Shree, who won the International Booker in 2022 with Tomb of Sand, is a lyrical meditation on memory, grief and unconventional female love. Beautifully translated into English by Rahul Soni, the novel breaks away from classic linear storytelling in the way it is pieced together like a psychological puzzle.
“When someone departs leaving behind only this roof and its skylights, it’s as if a melody starts rising like a gathering storm. All kinds of happy and sad moments, from here and there, yesterday and today, fly in and merge with it, to now tell the story that could not be told then.”
Laburnum House is a sprawling, labyrinthine complex of homes connected by a single, vast, undulating roof in a densely populated urban neighbourhood (mohalla). It is typical of traditional architecture in hot climates when packing houses tightly together with shared walls drastically reduces exposure to the blazing sun. As the buildings are so close together, the alleyways below stay relatively shady and cool.
The interconnected roof is a separate floor of the house. It is a shared communal space where families take their bedding to sleep under the breezy open night sky; and in the day, it is where women dry spices and wheat grains, children fly kites, and neighbours hang out and gossip.
Geetanjali Shree cleverly uses this structural reality as a metaphor: the roof represents freedom, despite the lack of privacy, given the way in which everyone keeps an eye on each other and chitchats. Women can peer down through the skylights at the stultifying world below while remaining untouchable above it. They can share secrets up there, and protect each other away from their misogynistic men. Down below, the doors, walls and windows represent societal constraints, claustrophobia and the stifling male gaze. Shree examines what happens when women refuse to conform and defy social expectations.
“And how beautiful was the roof. Scattering countless shadows for us to disappear into. We’d skin the sugarcane with our teeth, fill our mouths with its sweet juice, and talk and talk.”
The Death of a Matriarch
The narrative opens just after the death of Chachcho, the matriarch of the household. Her ghost and memories of her dictate the actions of the living. A woman, Lalna, returns after a long, unexplained absence. Chachcho’s grief-stricken nephew, Bitva, whom she had raised as a son, is disturbed by this reappearance. Years earlier, after Lalna was abandoned by her husband, lonely, wealthy Chachcho had taken her in.
She provided the stability and protection Lalna needed, and in return Chachcho gave her vitality. Chachcho’s husband was constantly away on business trips to Hong Kong, and showered his wife with gifts that she passed on to Lalna. Up on the roof, under the open sky, the two women formed a sensual and emotionally consuming bond; stepping outside the accepted boundaries of traditional female friendships.
Bitva harbours a burning resentment against Lalna for her rebellious, vocal defiance, and her strong hold on Chachcho. The gossips liked to assert that Lalna had been the mistress of her friend’s husband. They also claimed that Lalna might be his biological mother. They had failed to box in and tame this woman, “belonging to no home or hearth, just to the roof.”
The first part of the novel is written from his point of view as he desperately tries to uncover the truth (and his identity), while the second part is written from hers. Lalna’s return in a bid to heal her fractured relationship with Bitva reopens old wounds and his anger at her disruptive non-conformity. The idea that female love could exist entirely independent of men is anathema to him.
Disconcerting, oddly funny, moving and observant, this simultaneously local and universal tale is beautifully written, leaving much to the imagination and a lasting impression.
“One doesn’t have to try to be political or sociological in these times, when politics and society are so much upon us. Whatever you do, they creep in. It became about gender, about patriarchy, and about the people who cannot believe the closeness of the two women.” Geetanjali Shree, The Observer
BUY The Roof Beneath Their Feet
Buying books using the ‘BUY’ links helps support independent bookshops and our work as a CIC.
The copyright to all the content of this site is held by the individual authors and creators. All rights reserved. Enquiries: please use the contact form.
