Goddess of the River by Vaishnavi Patel

Goddess of the River by Vaishnavi Patel

Vaishnavi Patel's debut novel, Kaikeyi, came out in 2022 and was an instant bestseller. Goddess of the River came out in May of 2024, a retelling of the Hindu epic the Mahabharata (the longest known epic poem). It deals with child death, animal death, death in general, addiction, infertility, bullying, misogyny and sexism, toxic relationships, blood, violence, sexual assault, grief, murder, pregnancy, abandonment, war, injury detail, classism, and general violence. While most of this is not graphic, chapter eight in particular may be difficult for some to read.

Ganga is a goddess who was trapped when she left the realm of the gods and traveled her way to the Earth, she is not able to flow where she would like, but is forced to stay where her river flows and watch the progress of the humans at her banks. Soon enough, one of those humans curses her to live as a mortal woman for a time, during which she bears a son, Devavrata. When Ganga is returned to her river and separated from her son, the choices that Devavrata's father makes leads his people down a terrible path that Devavrata is forced to watch play out. Cousins fight cousins in an epic tale of avarice, greed, and honor, showcasing the best and the worst that humanity has to offer, told from the point of views of the river Ganga and her son.

Allow me to say that I had zero knowledge of the Mahabharata going into this book. I listened to the audiobook, the narrator's voice was beautiful and allowed me to get lost in the story, and I was hooked from the very beginning. I did get lost on occasion, there are a lot of characters, and I needed to reference a family tree to keep track sometimes. However, there is a family tree in the book as well as on Vaishnavi Patel's website, which I did not know about until I was finished with the book. That being said, I loved this book. Patel's prose is lovely and she is able to condense such a huge piece of work into a novel that was gripping and beautifully written. And Ganga is funny! I didn't expect that from a river, honestly.

I'm giving Goddess of the River by Vaishnavi Patel 4.5 stars out of 5. It's clear the immense amount of research that the author put into this novel. There were times that it was difficult for me to read, but I really enjoyed the book overall. I will be putting her first novel, Kaikeyi, on my list of books to read and will keep an eye out for her next novel that comes out in June of this year.

For more information on Vaishnavi Patel, see https://vaishnavipatel.com/

Pairs well with spiced, sauteed spinach and recycling.