Zero Degree is a postmodern novel written in 1998 by Tamil author Charu Nivedita, later translated into Malayalam and English.

The novel uses a non-linear narrative structure and often shockingly sexual and/or violent content, jumping between phone sex conversations, torture scenes (which seem to allude to the custodial treatment of Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka is a country off the southern coast of the Indian subcontinent. Known until 1972 as Ceylon , Sri Lanka is an island surrounded by the Indian Ocean, the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Strait, and lies in the vicinity of India and the...

n refugees), love poems, chapters set in Rwanda

Rwanda

Rwanda or , officially the Republic of Rwanda , is a country in central and eastern Africa with a population of approximately 11.4 million . Rwanda is located a few degrees south of the Equator, and is bordered by Uganda, Tanzania, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of the Congo...

 during the civil war

Rwandan Civil War

The Rwandan Civil War was a conflict within the Central African nation of Rwanda between the government of President Juvénal Habyarimana and the rebel Rwandan Patriotic Front...

, and accounts of an immortal with a penis several meters long, who performs complex rites of black magic in order to find an "Aryan

Aryan

Aryan is an English language loanword derived from Sanskrit ārya and denoting variously*In scholarly usage:**Indo-Iranian languages *in dated usage:**the Indo-European languages more generally and their speakers...

 yoni".

Reaction

When it appeared, Zero Degree was more experimental by far than any previously published book in Tamil, and generated a fair amount of buzz. When the Malayalam translation came out in 1999, with a forward by prominent Malayalam writer Paul Zacharia

Paul Zacharia

Paul Zacharia is a Malayalam short story writer, novelist and essayist. Born in Urulikkunnam in Kottayam district in Kerala, India, Zacharia lives in Trivandrum.-Literary career:...

,it surprised many Malayalam readers who had thought of their own contemporary literature scene as more radical than that in Tamil.

The English translation, by Pritham K. Chakravarthy and Rakesh Khanna, was one of the first releases of Chennai

Chennai

Chennai , formerly known as Madras or Madarasapatinam , is the capital city of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, located on the Coromandel Coast off the Bay of Bengal. Chennai is the fourth most populous metropolitan area and the sixth most populous city in India...

-based Blaft Publications in 2008.

External links

• http://www.amazon.com/Zero-Degree-Charu-Nivedita/dp/8190605615
• http://charuonline.com/dec08/TehelkaZeroReview.html
• http://charuonline.com/july08/express.html
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constrained_writing#Examples
• http://blaft.com/