Naalukettu (novel)

'The story takes place in a traditional tharavadu of Kerala's Nair community in its final gasp for life. The hero, Appunni, is a scion of a once rich and powerful family. Appunni is the son of a woman who married a man of her own choice and refused to marry the man whom her Karnavar suggested. So, she has to leave the family with her son. Appunni grows up without a father. The novel captures the traumas and psychological graph of Appunni, an introvert and angry youth, aspiring to avenge the insult meted out to him in a matrilineal family by building a new edifice on the ruins of his ancestral home. ==Reception==

The Hindu's critic K. Kunhikrishnan comments: "Naalukettu was significant in that it fascinatingly portrayed the degeneration of the matrilineal system of joint families (tharawad), where large numbers of relatives lived together. The decline and collapse of the system resulted in nuclear families and consequential social, traditional, and economic changes. But apart from the historical angle, Naalukettu has a lasting literary value, as one of the best in Malayalam fiction." ==Translations==

The novel has been translated into various Indian and foreign languages. The English translation is by: • The Arabic translation is by: • Musthafa Wafy and Anas Wafy with the same title and published by Al-Madarek- Jeddha The Konkani translation is by: • Gokuldas Prabhu with the title Chavki. This translation won the Sahitya Akademi Translation Prize in 2002. ==References==