Blue Skinned Gods by SJ Sindu is a compelling, thoughtful coming of age story exploring identity, belief systems, perception of the Other, sexuality, family relationships spanning across two continents, different cultures and traditions. Storytelling is beautiful, extremely moving and emphatic.
The protagonist of the book is a boy with blue skin called Kalki who is raised to believe that he is the incarnation of Vishnu, the Hindu god who has divine healing powers. Kalki’s father takes the advantage of his son’s unusual look to gain wealth and creates the entire narrative around it based on people’s superstitions by establishing an ashram in Tamil Nadu to exploit the desperation of the ordinary people where Kalki serves as a healer. With time the myth and illusion of Blue Skinned God is being dispelled causing Kalki’s confusion and disappointment with those around him. As he enters adulthood, Kalki moves to America to find his purpose in life, to define his own identity. The author also explores here the appeal of America, its culture, social media and the idea of opportunity.
Blue Skinned Gods is a very engaging tale, told with multi-layers of complexity and nuance. The examination of parent – child relationship and its impact on this child’s adulthood as well as the exploration of faith and its place in our society and life is beautifully portrayed.
The way the interconnectedness of the contemporary world and the notion of identity are presented in this book offers an invitation to deeper reflection. I was very touched by this book.
It was a very interesting and unusual read and I highly recommend it.
Thank you to a lovely team at Legend Press for having me on this wonderful book tour and for this beautiful gifted copy of Blue Skinned Gods. I thoroughly enjoyed it.
