Separation: A Literary Novel by Rathindra Nath Mukherjee [Paperback]

Description

he following version of this book was used to create this study guide: Kitamura, Katie. A Separation. Riverhead Books, 2017.

A Separation is a novel told in a generally linear fashion. It is written in the past tense and is told in the first person from the perspective of the unnamed protagonist. The unnamed protagonist is a woman who lives in London and works as a translator. She is married to a writer named Christopher, who is in his forties and has gone to Greece to do research for his new book, which is about mourning rituals around the world. One day, Christopher’s mother, Isabella, calls the protagonist and asks her to go to Greece to look for Christopher, as she has been unable to contact him. At this point, Christopher and the protagonist have been separated for six months due to Christopher’s many infidelities. The protagonist has started dating a man named Yvan. The protagonist agrees to go look for Christopher, but she secretly intends to ask him for a divorce when she finds him. She flies to Greece and arrives in a small village called Gerolimenas. She goes to the hotel in Gerolimenas where Christopher had checked in, but he is not there. At the hotel, the protagonist meets two employees: a man named Kostas, and woman named Maria. When the protagonist introduces herself as Christopher’s wife, she can tell by Maria’s reaction that Maria is jealous. The protagonist suspects that the womanizing Christopher likely slept with Maria.

The protagonist spends the next day looking through the belongings that Christopher had left behind in the hotel. She waits around the hotel for Christopher to return, but after a while, she hires a cab to take her around the village. The cab driver is a man named Stefano, who is a friend of Maria and Kostas. The protagonist impulsively claims to Stefano that she is in Gerolimenas to research a book about mourning. After Stefano takes the protagonist around the village, they go to the home of his great-aunt, who is a professional mourner for Greek funerals, and the great-aunt demonstrates the ritual. Later, back at the hotel, the protagonist sees Stefano and Maria talking, and the protagonist can tell that Stefano loves Maria, while Maria does not feel the same way. In a later conversation with Maria, the protagonist learns that Christopher was rumored to have had a brief affair with a woman in nearby Cape Tenaro. That evening, the protagonist and Maria have dinner together in the hotel restaurant. Maria asks many questions about Christopher, and after the meal, the protagonist asks Maria if she slept with Christopher. Maria, somewhat ashamed, admits that she did.

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