I was stunned to discover that “The Fertile Earth” is Ruthvika Rao’s debut novel because it reads like it’s from a long-time novelist. The story revolves around two sets of characters: the brothers from a lower caste family (Krishna and Ranga) and the higher caste Vijaya and the victimised Sree who are members of the Deshmukh family. The story is what happens when these four characters interact as they go off together on an adventure to find a dangerous tiger. This adventure will impact the rest of the novel and it sets in motion the violence that begins the novel.

Rao sets the novel in her created village of Irumi which she places in the real Telengana. By doing this, she not only gives readers a chance to explore the characters and their environment, but she builds a community that we can understand and picture so it makes the story more powerful. We grow to care about the four characters because we see how their lives are impacted by the society in which they live. This novel shows the danger of a caste system that treats people as undesirable and expendable.

Rao’s novel is an exploration of the cruelty that we inflict on others whether it’s family members hating each other, or using social and religious structures as an excuse to be relentlessly cruel. The novel has a few moments towards the end that go on a bit long, but this is a wonderful debut work from Ruthvika Rao.

I would offer a couple of warnings: there is some of animal violence in the book so for those sensitive to that you might want to prepare yourself. There’s also explicit violence so just know this going on and you will be fine. Nothing is gratuitous, and Rao’s use of violence is purposeful.

This is likely going to be one of my top 10 and most memorable read of the year.

Set in 1960s Irumi, India, Sree and Vijaya, both daughters to a rich landowner, forged an unexpected friendships with Krishna and Ranga, sons to a washerwoman, across caste/class.

For many years their parents tried many ways to break the friendship of their children and forbade their taboo-ed relationships. But their relationship, like the human heart, unfortunately/fortunately prevailed, and brought upon mishaps and blessings; trauma and celebrations; and unveiled many hidden secrets.

Rao deftly alluded to the classism, caste differentiation, and Marxism in 1960s India, without losing the novel’s expansive plot to banality. I was very invested in the lives of the characters to the extent I was squeezing in a few pages while waiting for my next patients on the small screen of my phone.

Piecing together historical facts, stories of the human hearts, and fiction that bear evidence to the tragedy of our humanity, Ruthvika Rao’s The Fertile Earth is a strong contender for the Center of fiction prize this year. She has got my vote and I hope she makes the shortlist. I want this novel to win.

Readers who love Brotherless Night will most likely love this. Readers who dares to challenge their own notions of goodness and evil will also likely be taken by this novel.

I am very grateful to have received an ARC from one world publishing and from Netgalley but all opinions are mine. This epic will be out on 5 September 2024. I beg everybody to read it.

A love story set against the background of the tumultuous political environment of India in the 1960s, and the brewing conflict between tradition and modernity. Our protagonists are Vijaya, the eldest daughter of a wealthy landowning family, and Krishna, the son of a local washerwoman. We follow their relationship and blooming love from a tender age over multiple decades, and experience the tensions that threaten to break it apart.

What's most impressive and exciting about the story is the background it it set against. The research into it is impressive, and it is genuinely heartbreaking to read about the day-to-day horrors that haunted people as they try to live their lives. The political aspects were new to me, and added to the heartbreak frankly (the tension between Hindu Nationalism, Communism, and the Naxalite faction). As a character-driven story this book also excels in creating vivid characters, whose reactions to their environment is what makes the story come to life and grab the reader's attention page after page. In this sense, I put this book on a similar level as Rohinton Mistry, or even Vikram Seth.

The main weakness of the story, for me, is in the over-dramaticisation of the relationship. I would have given 4.5/5 to the first 70% of the book, 2/5 to the subsequent 10-15%, and 5/5 to the rest. The "weaker" bit reads like a cliché rendering that sits somewhere between the more weepy parts of Jane Austen's work, and the tearjerking Bollywood creations. Somehow it was also less mature, less interesting, and contributed least to the overall impression of the story. It came across as such blunt "fan service" that the strength of messaging of the broader context of the book was actually harmed. It was so badly done that I didn't find it emotive at all - and I typically and a sucker for a good cry when reading a story of this sort.

I would still recommend this book to anyone interested in some of the lesser known (at least to me) parts of the history of contemporary India. While not me, but fans of sappy romance will also find this book endearing.

My thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with an early copy of this book in return for an honest review.

The author of this book Ruthvika Rao and grew up in Hyderabad and worked for many years as a computer programmer (I think in the US) before studying at the Iowa Writer’s Workshop where she refined the manuscript for this book – one I would describe as a literary love story (across social and caste divides) set in her birthplace of the Indian state of Telangana and written in her second language of English (although with some limited Telegu – her first language, all of which is explained – this is thankfully not one of those books with huge amounts of untranslated langauge)

The book starts in 1970 in the small village of Irumi in a dramatic scene where a 11-year-old boy – Kanakam, son of a tanner and therefore an outcast - wanders through the burning gadi (the local manor house) ruled by the local zarimandars (feudal landlords with life and death type powers) the Deshmush family – who he watches being summarily executed after being sentenced to death by a “people’s court” of armed guerillas.

The rest of the story then – starting in 1955 – leads up to this incident, concentrating on the Deshmukh household (including two daughters of the Zaminder’s brother – Vijaya and the younger Sree, the latter strongly favoured by their mother) as well as one of their live-in servants (Katya – who seems oddly favoured in the household) and the two sons of another seamstress servant (the older and rather reckless Ranga – already doing the lifelong indentured servitude known as vetti - and the one year younger and more academic Krishna – who his mother has asked to be exempted from vetti and sent to school).

The key episode of the novel – and both families lives – occurs in that year. Vijaya and Krishna (who have developing feelings for each other despite the various social lines that crosses) hatch a plan to try and capture a man-eating tiger that has even managed to elude Vijaya’s Uncle – and end up taking Ranga and Sree with them, only for Sree to have a terrible fall into a ravine. Ranga takes the blame for the incident (he and Vijaya deny that Krishna came with them) and the Zaminder despite knowing they are lying – beats Ranga on a whipping post almost to death (forcing his mother to watch) – also agreeing to Krishna going to school but only on the condition he never returns (and that Ranga never leaves) so aiming to stop any relationship with Vijaya.

The book then follows the lives of the various individuals: Ranga ultimately joining and rising in the Marxist Naxalite guerilla group; Vijaya trying to find some freedom from her family – but struggling with her mother’s seeming hatred for her as well as her own guilt over Sree’s health and eventually the shadow of an arranged marriage; Krishna befriended by a Hinda-Nationalist anti-communist student activist who draws him into dangerous political activity against both his wishes and the advice of his professor. Vijaya and Krishna re-make illicit contact after Krishna reappears at a village fair. And in the background the power of the Zaminder’s starts to diminish as the Naxalite lead uprisings become more frequent.

Overall, I found this an immersive and interesting novel – although one that is very plot and character rather than innovation or language driven.