My latest book is The One Who Swam With The Fishes.

"A mesmerizing account of the well-known story of Matsyagandha ... and her transformation from fisherman’s daughter to Satyavati, Santanu’s royal consort and the Mother/Progenitor of the Kuru clan." - Hindustan Times

"Themes of fate, morality and power overlay a subtle and essential feminism to make this lyrical book a must-read. If this is Madhavan’s first book in the Girls from the Mahabharata series, there is much to look forward to in the months to come." - Open Magazine

"A gleeful dollop of Blytonian magic ... Reddy Madhavan is also able to tackle some fairly sensitive subjects such as identity, the love of and karmic ties with parents, adoption, the first sexual encounter, loneliness, and my favourite, feminist rage." - Scroll



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29 January 2021

What I'm Reading


Slightly cheating to pick Isabel Allende as the first translated book you read in a year you promise yourself you'll read above and beyond the English language. Cheating because Allende and I are already intimately acquainted, I've been a reader since I was sixteen and received a copy of Eva Luna for my birthday. I return to her every few years, her back list is so huge, I can do this for a long time and never run out of books to read. But--sadly there is a but--Daughter of Fortune is not one of my favourite Allendes. I mean, it is excellent on its own and a wonderful picaresque tale of a young woman but there's... Too Much Going On and I don't know if I like picaresque stories very much for all that. Eliza, a beloved foundling, leaves her gentle upbringing and home to run away to Gold Rush era California to search for the man she thinks she loves. It's great, there's two more books in Eliza's journey which I will now read, being invested, but my favourite besides Eva Luna, which was my first is the unusual for Allende, suspense novel, Ripper, about a serial killer in Sam Francisco. Anyway, if you haven't discovered her yet, do! She's amazing. #bookstagram #121in2021 #isabelallende #daughteroffortune #literatureintranslation

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