Alpha

¹…œ[T. D. Ramakrishnan] takes the Malayalam novel to new heights and fresh possibilities HINDUWhat makes us human?Twelve people accompany an anthropologist to a deserted island, cutting off all relations with the outside world. There, an experiment begins. They are not to use any known languages and must begin anew to explore and find out if they can achieve in twenty-five years what humanity has achieved over generations. Twenty-five years later, only three of the thirteen have survived. As these three survivors recount their tale, what emerges is a story of humanity returned to its primitive roots, bereft of attachment, and not nearly as utopian as was expected.Award-winning writer T. D. Ramakrishnans debut novel, translated for the first time to English, explores through a powerfully imaginative conceit the meaning of relationships, attachments, love, hate and anger. Above all, it seeks to answer the question: what does it mean to be human?