Indrapramit Das

Some of this multi-layered debut-novel is set in the present, and some of it is set during the Mughal era, the 1640s, around the time the Taj Mahal was about halfway done. It is a tale of an India invaded by the Raj, infected by foreign demons and mythological creatures, such as werewolves and weretigers. The protagonist of The Devourers, a young man named Alok, is a a history professor in Kolkata (Calcutta) who is solicited by a stranger, Izrail, to help transcribe a series of handwritten scrolls on parchment made of skin. The stranger claims he is a “half werewolf,” a shapeshifter who can turn into a wolf-like beast at will. Glamoured by this stranger and taken by the tale, Alok agrees and types out each manuscript, which contain the life stories of two past individuals: Fenrir, a werewolf from the Norse lands, and Cyrah of Lahore, a young woman. The shapeshifter/werewolf mythology here does not have its origins in India, but rather in Norse mythology: Fenrir is the monstrous wolf meant to kill Odin at Ragnarök.

Through Fenrir’s first-person account we learn of his obsession with Cyrah, and that he raped her and committed acts of violence to protect their unborn child. This rape narrative is difficult, but the novel then shifts its focus to Cyrah, whose voice dominates most of the book. The remainder of Cyrah’s scroll recounts her journey to track Fenrir down and her struggle to come to terms with the half-human child inside of her. In order to understand Fenrir and his motives, however, Cyrah must also wrestle with understanding how shapeshifters are different from humans, confronting in the process difficult questions about what exactly it means to be “human” at all. The book is too violent and vicious for my taste (although it is an integral element of the story), and deeply disturbing; it appears to be making a statement about colonialism.… (altro)