"Determined to apply the godly might of English justice and uphold a law banning the practice, an English doctor and magistrate muscle in to stop her. In an 11th-hour volte face, Jayanti, desiring life over the afterlife, allows herself to be saved. Triumphant, the magistrate suggests she become his mistress, but instead she opts to be shipped off to Trinidad. The island, she's told, is a place where the shame of her choice will be forgotten."
"This part of the story is narrated by we, the omniscient bois guardian of the forest that hides ganja fields, bootlegging stills and Black Power camps. Behold we are bois. We've always existed and we were once everywhere. Now, although carved from the southern continent and pushed back to the fringes of this island, still we see and listen and know."
In Bihar in 1899 Jayanti prepares for sati after her husband's death. English magistrates intervene to uphold a law banning sati and Jayanti chooses life over ritual death, rejects a magistrate's offer, and is sent to Trinidad where shame is expected to be forgotten. By 1973 in Bagatelle thirteen-year-old Shiva Gopaul, Jayanti's descendant, struggles through adolescence. An omniscient collective called the bois observes from the forest, guarding ganja fields, bootlegging stills, and Black Power camps. Shiva's emotional world centers on his mother, That Town Woman, and the constrained choices facing women and migrants.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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