Last year I read "Gujarat No Nath" and "Rajadhiraj" by K M Munshi. I loved those books. Since I read those books I added historical fictions to my favorite book genre. Books like Ponnis Beloved reminded me Munshi's books. I just read the first part of five volumes and Sumeetha I am not sure whether I can wait for your next translations. I am already keeping watch on the price of the complete set.
Book Blurb
Kalki Krishnamurthy’s Ponniyin Selvan is a masterpiece that has enthralled generations of Tamil readers. Many authors have written phenomenal books in Tamil literature after Kalki Krishnamurthy, but Ponniyin Selvan remains the most popular, widely-read novel. It has just the right mixture of all things that makes an epic – political intrigue, conspiracy, betrayal, huge dollops of romance, infidelity, seduction, passion, alluring women, unrequited love, sacrifice and pure love.
Ponni's Beloved is the story of Chola Dynasty during Sundar Chola and his sons time. Though the main theme is around Chola Family like Munashi Kalki has used Vandiya Devan as the main protagonist. Vandiya Devan was sent by Aditya Karikalan to Thanjavur to deliver two important messages. The first volume (this book) is majorly concentrated on Vandiya's quest to deliver both messages successfully without getting into hands of Pazhuvetarayar brothers. Pazhuvetarayar brothers were planning the conspiracy. They were restricting Sundar Chola's interaction with his sons. Well, conspiracy didn't stop at Pazhuvetarayar brothers. Even they were also being pawned by someone. I don't want to reveal secrets in the first part. May be in next part we will discuss more about the storyline.
The reason why it took me to finish the book was Tamil names. It was really difficult to keep track of similar names. Many times I rewind pages to confirm characters.
Don't think twice just grab your copy and read it. Talking about ratings:
- Cover : 3.5 / 5
- Content : 4 / 5
- Concept : 4 / 5
- Characters : 4 / 5
- Overall : 4.5 / 5
Review from other readers can be found at GoodReads
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Thank you for this lovely review :)
ReplyDeleteMs. Sumeetha Manikandan, you have done really a wonderful job in translating Kalki's Ponniyin Selvan. I did not feel any difference between the original Tamil and your English translation. Such was the flow of your translation. Simply wonderful.
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