‘Once’: A novel that cherishes love, both given and received, holding it central to our existence

Once by N Mohanan, translated from the bestselling Malayalam novel Orikkal by AJ Thomas, begins with a short letter to readers from the author. In it, he explains how a request from two editors of the newspaper Malayalam Manorama to write a piece about the woman who had the greatest influence on his life prompted him to write the book. He meekly awards the title neither to his mother, the famous Malayalam writer Lalithambika Antharjanam, nor to his wife, but to a “girl” who shaped his intellectual and emotional life and fuelled his creative drive in an interim phase when he stepped out of his mother’s care and was yet to get married.

Part memoir and part fiction, Once is about the dreams and aspirations this “girl” planted in the author’s fecund mind that blossomed into a beautiful and intense emotional relationship; about the love she gave him and received in turn before she suddenly walked away from the world they built together. The novella is about the wounds of an unfulfilled love that you believe have healed over time, only to see them bleed when you accidentally meet your long-lost love decades later in your twilight years.

The novella was originally serialised in the...

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