The Toss of a Lemon

“The Toss of a Lemon is a captivating novel that in relating the story of

one Indian woman and her family tells the story of a changing society.
I challenge any reader to start reading this book and give up on it. The Toss
of a Lemon joins the company of great novels on India.”
—Yann Martel, author of Life of Pi

I ns pire d by h er fam i ly h i story , Padma Viswanathan takes

us deep inside the private lives of a Brahmin family, bringing to life an The
Toss
India we’ve never before seen.
At the novel’s heart is Sivakami, married at ten, widowed at
eighteen, and left with two children. According to the dictates of
her caste, her head is shaved and she must wear widow’s whites. From
dawn to dusk, she is not allowed to contaminate herself with human
touch, not even to comfort her small children.
of a
Lemon
And she dutifully follows custom, except for one defiant act: She
moves back to her dead husband’s house and village to raise her children.
Her servant, Muchami, a closeted gay man who is bound by a very different
set of caste rules, becomes her public face. This singular relationship,
scrupulously formal yet indispensable for both, holds three generations

Padma Viswanathan
together through a turbulent half century of social and political change.
The Toss of a Lemon is heartbreaking and exhilarating, profoundly
exotic yet utterly recognizable in evoking the tensions that change brings A N O V E L
to every family. At once epic and intimate, this masterful novel is the
debut of a major new storyteller.
Padma Viswanathan

ISBN 978-1-921401-30-5

ISBN 978-1-921401-30-5

9 781921 401305
UWA PUBLISHING

9 781921 401305