Book Review: The Gospel of Yudas by K. R Meera

Title: The Gospel of Yudas

Author: K. R Meera

Publisher: Penguin India

Genre: Novella/ Fiction

Rating: 5/5 stars

'The Gospel of Yudas'  resonates with the emotions of love, remembrance and repentance and present before the readers the 'naxalite's' version of the events that shock the entire nation in the seventies. The story unfolds in a village which is trying to survive amidst utter conflict and confusion. Almost everyday people of that village witness new dead-bodies appear on the lake but nobody dares to speak against the people in power. Yudas, the protagonist of the novella lives in that village whose job it is to dive into the lake and bring those deadbodies to the shore. But it is not what he actually is. He hides inside of him a guilt, a dark past which is eating his him from inside. 

One day, while bringing a corpse to the shore he was noticed by Prema, a girl from the village whose father used to work as a Police constable and used to torture the naxalites. The vagabond life of Judas makes Prema fall in love with him and now Prema decides to uncover the life of Yudas.

To know what happened next you have to go through this fabulous work.

The first thing that I absolutely loved is the narration. K. R Meera has done a fantastic job in presenting the story in the most beautiful and humane way possible. It is not an easy task to actually develop a story in limited words in the form of a novella, but she has painted it so brilliantly that nowhere I felt dissatisfied. Also, as Tagore once said about the genre of short story that it leaves a thirst in the mind of the readers to know more, here too I felt that same kind of thirst to know more about Yudas and Prema.

Another thing which I loved the most is the way the author has presented the events of the naxalite movements from the point of view of the villagers and how the state actually uses the police and other forms of suppression to silence the voice against injustice. Villagers were tagged as 'Naxalites' by the people in power to usurp their land and resources. 

It is undoubtedly a revolutionary work as it forces one to think  and evaluate the events not only from the perspective of the rulers by also from the perspective of the ruled. I give this work full 5 stars and highly recommend this novella to all.

Happy Reading