A review by baibhabi
socio psychological novella WHEN WILL YOU DIE? by Jayanthi Sankar, Jayanthi Sankar

3.0

When Will You Die follows the life of Susan, who grows up living with her grandmother after her parents’ separate. When her mother dies shortly after giving birth to her half-brother Joseph, Susan brings him up. She confides in and pours her heart out to Suiyi, her pen pal. Suiyi has a similar fate to that of Susan; his parents have separated and his mother has died in a car crash shortly after. Suiyi visits India and meets Susan, asking her for lifelong companionship and with the promise of a better life with him in Singapore. Susan agrees, much to her Nanimaa’s dismay, who believes that Susan will henceforth abandon her country and people to live elsewhere. Joseph grows frantic when he learns that his sister, who he has grown up believing as only his, will live away from him. He grows jealous of Suiyi and at a tender age of eleven, unconsciously vows to see him dead. What follows is a mismatched mix of several subplots featuring themes of emotions, psychosis, family, self-harm and bitter revelations.

I have mixed feelings for the book. On one hand there is Jayanthi Sankar’s incredible grip on vocabulary while on the other hand there are the poorly woven plots. No I did not like the book overall but some portions did make me smile to myself and made me say, ‘well this is the reality’ quietly to myself.

Frequently moving from one narrative to another, themes of death, hallucination and a cliffhanger in the end alone does not make a good socio-psychological novella. One or a set of well written plots that make sense adds to the quality.