In this debut novel, Padma Viswanathan offers a sweeping narrative of a Brahmin family in India that must redefine itself when the nation undergoes political and social upheaval. The Toss of a Lemon is an ambitious work that delivers through its careful examination of class hierarchies, gender divisions, and complex familial relationships.

The author wastes no time in immersing us in a world of unswerving tradition as 10-year-old Sivakami becomes engaged to Hanumarathnam, a young healer from Cholapatti. The couple marry and have two children, Vairum and Thangam, before Hanumarathnam fulfills an earlier prophecy that he will die in the 10th year of his marriage. As the generations unfold and the times become increasingly unstable, Sivakami endures as the unyielding core of the family and its strict Brahmin practices.

The Toss of a Lemon is a lengthy read, but thankfully, the prose is crisp enough to provide a concrete sense of the places that the characters inhabit. The language captures unspoken melancholy through the rhythm of strummed drone strings, or the wonder of childhood curiosity through the taste of soil that “is crunchy and damply acrid and contains a couple of jasmine petals.” Viswanathan is also not afraid to break into these moments with more hard-edged language that probes India’s political and cultural troubles.

Ultimately, the family at the centre of the novel serves as a fascinating microcosm of a nation that is freeing itself of vestiges of colonialism and class divisions. While the narrative ends on an uncertain note, it also convincingly argues that the future is located in the new possibilities that lie beyond class and gender constraints.