Bloodied Pages

Set in the heart of Lutyens' Delhi, this novel delves into the macabre horrors of patriarchy

- Vineetha Mokkil IS ASSISTANT EDITOR, OUTLOOK. SHE IS THE AUTHOR OF THE BOOK A HAPPY PLACE AND OTHER STORIES

ALL happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” This line from Leo Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina has been so often quoted that it has taken on a life of its own. Tolstoy’s tragedy was set in Russian high society of the 19th century. Cut to contemporary Delhi, the setting of Arunima Tenzin Tara’s debut novel, The Ex Daughters of Tolstoy House. Arunima’s tale zooms in on Meera’s family. Married to successful surgeon Ambarish Sehgal for over 40 years, Meera has three daughters: Sujata, Kavita and Naina. Their home, Tolstoy House, is nestled in the insular heart of Lutyens’ Delhi. The novel opens with Meera’s death. The task of cleaning up Meera’s bloodied body and bloodied room goes to Naina. Ambarish orders his heartbroken daughter to get the job done. Sujata, his eldest, is on the run. Kavita, the middle child, is no longer among the living. That makes them both ‘ex daughters’ of the macabre Tolstoy House.

The Ex Daughters of Tolstoy House checks all the boxes of the gothic horror genre. It features a grand mansion—home of dark family secrets and of a vicious man. An air of looming dread; unease lurking behind the family's well-oiled daily routine. Blood (lots of it). Violence. Supernatural elements. The past forever present, shaping the lives of the characters, bearing them back “ceaselessly into the past”. Gothic fiction, which has been haunting readers since the mid-19th century, uses these tropes to lay bare the anatomy of evil, to explore the darkest corners of the human psyche, to shine the light on aspects of human existence society would rather sweep under a collective carpet. At Tolstoy House, the veneer is polished.