The Haunting of Kunjamma P.

Shinie Antony

‘A novel that combines life, satire, and social criticism in a way never seen before.’ — Benyamin, writer

‘A truly humbling voice in women’s writing; a magical wordsmith.’ – Reeta Ramamurthy Gupta

A DEVIL WITH A MEMOIR. A WOMAN BOTH HILARIOUSLY DEVOUT AND TRAGICALLY POSSESED.

In a sleepy corner of Kerala, Kunjamma Paulose lives a life of perfect piety. She sweeps church courtyards at dawn, prays with theatrical intensity and treats her family with the kind of suffocating duty only martyrs can muster. She is God’s most loyal foot soldier.

But when a devil – not just any devil, but a demon–phantom hybrid with literary aspirations – takes up residence inside Kunjamma, her life implodes and sputters like holy water on Hell’s hot fires. Kunjamma is convinced she has been tasked by God himself with composing the Fifth Gospel. What is to then become of her perpetually useless and lurid husband; her near– immortal mother in- law who may just outlive Christianity; her grown, sexually curious daughter who ‘accidentally’ gave a lap dance to a relative; and the terrified, local clergy, all of whom eye an absurd, unthinkable fate.

The Haunting of Kunjamma P. is a side-splitting novel about the thin line between belief and delusion, and the diabolical absurdity of being human. This is satire at its most unholy and most divine.