Bring out the heralds, the initial reports about this book, Tiger Hills by debutante author Sarita Mandanna, are all true. Set in Coorg, undoubtedly one of the most picturesque places in the world, the wide sweep of the novel both in terms of narrative and style reminds you of the family sagas by MM Kaye or even Colleen McCollough which populate school libraries to this day. In the era of obscure, incomprehensible prose and plot lines, an old-fashioned love fable set in an exotic land is always welcome.
If the author is guilty of anything, it is of introducing a little more of the picturesque than required in her descriptions. But that fault can be overlooked because of the sheer sweep of the book. Starting from the late 19th century to the immediate post-independence era, it captures the colonial project in this unique enclave in south Karnataka.
Central to the story is the character of Devi, a Coorgi Scarlett O’Hara who too inherits her Tara, the coffee estate Nari Malai or Tiger Hill, at a time of adversity. She too has ?as God is my witness, I’ll never go hungry again? moment in the middle of the book. Like Scarlett O’Hara, Devi marries the wrong man and loses her true love, has a son who she struggles to love, and a lover who goes off to war, like Ashley in Gone With the Wind. Again, like that headstrong heroine, she refuses to reconcile to her fate.
The highlands of Coorg, called the Scotland of India, and its lush beauty are an appropriate backdrop for the story. The clannish Coorgis lend themselves to sweeping stories set in sprawling coffee estates, trysts in arbours and dramatic weather.
The book should be read in that spirit in fact. A love story, peopled by interesting characters and set in an exotic locale. If on the way you feel that the description is more in keeping with a foreign audience than a domestic one, one need only remind oneself that for ordinary Indians, Coorg and Coorgis are as much exotica as for foreigners. Situated in south Karnataka, barely hours away from Bangalore, the Coorgis have always held themselves aloof from the rest of the state, and have been quite careful in preserving their unique identity. The beauty of the land and its people is tailormade for a tale like this.
The author had herself confessed in an interview that she had barely ever visited the site of her plot, and has admitted to relying rather heavily on memories held by her relatives who lived in Coorg in the time that she is writing about. That is what perhaps gives the novel immediacy and a distance from events.
Quite apart from the whopping advance reportedly paid for the book, it is perhaps an ‘important’ book for creating excitement around the one thing which is indispensable to a good read, a good story. Wade through the exotica and picturesque description, the story beats with its own momentum. It could be marketed as a slice of life of one of India’s last known corners, but it does not require that to sell itself. A corker of a read, finally.