There is no end to my journey for as long as people dream. And tell their stories. In the end, I found my immortality as others looked for theirs.
For I am…
-Anuja Chandramouli, ‘Mohini, the Enchantress’.
A beautiful rhytmic story with well-crafted prose about age old forgotten mysteries is bound to spell any reader and what if the storyteller is an Enchantress with irresistible charm that no human, Deva and Asura could resist.
This book is a re-telling of ‘Mohini’, a Hindu mythological character whos an avatar of Hindu God Vishnu created to hypnotic perfection. There are different versions of stories about her and her contribution throughout the hindu mythology wherein she is revered like a Goddess or sometimes disgraced to be just a courtsean but through this book the author has given a voice to her to narrate her life beyond stereotypes. I liked the way Mohini is not just reduced to beauty and seduction but we get to see not only her but everything going around her through a fresh lense.
Set against the background of events that involved the churning of the ocean by Gods and Demons, and their desire for immortality Mohini tells you more about the untold fable age which was forgotten by memory and myth, the tales of deceit and the reasons of the deceiver. She advocates and alibi for the most misunderstood female hindu mythological characters which is my most favorite part and also tells about the extraordinary race whose harbinger is her child Shastha.
Although this is the 11th book by the author who’s well-known for historical fiction, its my first book from her. The authors clever narration and figurative language is plausible, the entire story is dreamlike so the characters just come and go and the plot is shifted at fast pace but I would have appreciated a description about other characters at the start or end.
If you love reading mythical fictional stories this book is highly recommended but you need to have a little knowledge of Hindu mythology beforehand to absorb this book well.
Bombay Reader 