PositiveThe Hindu (IND)Everything that Perumal Murugan — who faced violent protests from caste groups against his novel Madhorubhagan in 2015 — writes is now under scrutiny. And none more so than Poonachi Or The Story of a Black Goat, the first work of fiction by this Tamil writer after he ended his state of self-exile ... Not surprisingly, given the context, Poonachi is an ironic look at society, of power and abuse, bondage and greed, surveillance and the silent acquiescence of the weak in their own subjugation ... As in all his novels, Murugan’s story is rich in detail. The semi-arid rural landscape thirsting for rain, in which it is set, throbs with life ... Murugan sustains the narrative tension right from the start.
