‘The Menon Investigation’: In Saharu Nusaiba Kannanari’s novel, there is no escape from caste

Saharu Nusaiba Kannanari’s much-awaited second novel to be published, The Menon Investigation, has arrived at bookstores a year and a half after his audacious debut, Chronicle of an Hour and a Half. Hailed as one of the best of the year, Kannanari’s first published novel was not just a hit amongst readers but also lauded by prize juries for its literary merit. Kannanari already has a distinct voice, full of wit and anger, moulded by years of reading illustrious writers. In a conversation with Scroll, he admitted to being a “great admirer of 20th-century American literature,” a reverence that manifests itself in his writing.

Smelling out crime

Kannanari has a nose for crime – or at least, the making of it. He is interested in the bits and the pieces, the nightmares and foiled dreams, the neglect and indignity that birth a criminal. Almost always, the individual is coerced and thwarted by the system, pushed into a corner with no exit route – compounding symptoms resulting in lifelong malaise. In The Menon Investigation, Kannari conducts two parallel investigations: of the criminal and the guardian of law.

IG Vijay Menon is reinvestigating the death of Kannan Moses, a colleague who was brutally murdered and set on fire at a beach near Kozhikode. The murder is committed by...

Read more