Synopsis Of Idris

The year is 1659. Idris, a Somali trader, is in Malabar to attend the Zamorin’s Mamangam festivities. Everywhere he goes, his jewelled eye evokes a sense of wonder and incredulity. Then, by a strange twist of fate, Idris meets his nine-year-old son, Kandavar, born of a mysterious midnight tryst in this very land. Anxious to remain close to him for as long as possible, he joins the Nair household headed by Kandavar’s uncle, and is charged with a crucial task: of distracting the boy from his dream of becoming a Chaver, a warrior whose sole ambition is to assassinate the Zamorin, in a tradition whose beginnings have been lost in time.

In an attempt to stave off the inevitable, Idris embarks with his son on a voyage that takes them from Malabar to Ceylon, and from Thoothukudi to the diamond mines of Golkonda, where he meets the queenly Thilothamma, as solitary a being as he is. Will the mines reward him? Will he find the strength to leave his new-found love and journey back to his son’s land – and to an uncertain future?

Packed with adventure and passion, and full of fascinating insights into life in the seventeenth century, Idris: Keeper of the Light will keep you riveted and hungry for more.

Praise for Idris

The Week

… a new historical to sink your teeth into

The Week

Sunday Herald

This beautifully crafted novel chronicles Idris’s travels… Anita Nair does a marvelous job of bringing such rich and various settings and cultures from another age, to vivid life. With the help of intensive research and a forceful imagination, she draws readers to share life aboard the ships, feel the rocking waves and fear thunderous monsoon storms… A remarkable narrative.

Sunday Herald

The New Indian Express

Packed with riveting adventure, exploits, mystery, intrigue, sensualism, and passion, and full of fascinating insights into the 17th century, the book keeps you riveted and hungry for more as the historical tale moves from land to sea and back to land. The amount of research that Anita has done and the seamless way she has integrated the historical traditions of the Malabarans with the character of Idris, the eternal traveller, seeking the measure of earth and man, goes on to show the calibre of this author.

The New Indian Express

The Hindu

The novel is a breath-taking adventure, a passionate love story and a voyage of discovery with the tall, dark, mysterious traveller, Idris, as the still centre of the story.

The Hindu

Verve

Meticulously researched and quite, quite unforgettable – Anita Nair brings alive the 17th century. It’s not just about the language and the story, but also as much about the landscape which she describes to the fullest which add an element of mystery. Fascinatingly imagined, this is a riveting tale which celebrates details

Verve

Outlook India

Nair’s prose unfolds like an Ang Lee film, as a vast geographic panorama sweeps in front of the reader’s eye, frame by exquisite frame. The individual sentences are zen-like in their balance and poise, more beautiful for the absence of extra words. Nair brilliantly captures the music of many tongues as she traverses the different terrains.

Outlook India

Publishers: Idris

Harper Collins, India
Ugo Guanda Editore, Italy
Duomo Ediciones S L, Spain
A.W. Bruna Uitgevers B.V. The Netherland (Dutch)
Editions Albin Michel, France
Mathrubhumi, Kerala