The silent strength of KR Meera's women

K.R. Meera's 'Assassin' is an epic tale that raises uncomfortable questions about identity, caste and gender

- Fehmida Zakeer

Invoking the 2017 murder of activist and journalist Gauri Lankesh, K.R. Meera's new novel begins with an assassination attempt. Satyapriya, a woman in her mid40s, arrives at her house in Bengaluru around midnight. Suddenly, a man on a motorcycle rides up and shoots at her three times. Her quick reflexes, which prompt her to duck and fall to the ground, and the arrival of her young neighbour save her.

Though shaken, Satyapriya tries to put the incident behind her and goes to her parents' home in Kerala. There, Sivaprasad, her bedridden father, paralysed after a knife attack 24 years ago, tells her she "too may be killed sometime soon". Before Sivaprasad can elaborate on his sentence, he collapses and dies, leaving Satyapriya more shaken and with more questions than when she arrived.

For Satyapriya, her father's warning also stirs up memories of her sister, who died in an accident. Now she wonders: Was it an accident a murder? And why was her father, who had been a film producer, stabbed 14 times and left to die by the roadside? She realises that what she had considered to be accidents may have been targeted attempts to kill her and her family members.

This sets Satyapriya-named fittingly-on a quest to find out whether the accidents and deaths around her were indeed dealt by the hand of fate or by the designs of a powerful enemy.