Undying Echoes of Silence by T. P Rajeevan

Undying Echoes of Silence is a thriller murder mystery set in the period of the first Communist government in Kerala. It is the story of Manickyam, a young girl who is married to Pokkan, the assistant sorcerer of the village. Hardly a fortnight after their marriage, she is found dead. Cheeru, her mother-in-law, claims that she has died of epileptic seizures. But marks around her neck reveal that she had been strangulated and hung from a tree. Subsequent investigation also points towards a brutal rape. However, even after a long trial, all the accused are mysteriously acquitted. Many years later the protagonist embarks on his journey to uncover the truth.

• The novel has already been made into a major Malayalam movie that bagged a lot of critical acclaim and many awards including the Kerala State Film Academy’s Best Film Award for 2009.
• The story is based on a murder that actually happened in Kerala of the 1950s. The case was the first official record of a crime against a woman that was registered after the formation of the first democratically elected communist government in Kerala. The case has remained unsolved all these years.
• The story portrays the transition of an Indian village from feudal system to modern democracy in the 1950s.
• The unnamed protagonist pieces together little bits of evidence from people who are unwilling to say much. The tale brings out intrigue, greed, sexual depravity, lust for power and superstition

.About the Author

Thachom Poyil Rajeevan, currently the Cultural Adviser to the Government of Kerala, writes fiction, poetry and essays in English and Malayalam. In English, he has published two poetry collections, Kannaki and He Who was Gone Thus. He has also edited an anthology of poems Third Word: Post Socialist Poetry with the Croatian poet Lana Derkac

. He contributes reviews and articles to leading magazines and newspapers. Rajeevan’s poems have been translated into fourteen languages including French, Italian, Polish, Macedonian, Uzbek, Croatian and Hebrew. He was awarded the International Visiting Programmer Fellowship by the US Department of States and the Honorary Fellow of Writing by Iowa University in 2004. He also held a Ledig House International Residency in 2008 at Hudson, New York.