”You swore to me and to the gods,” I said, my voice shaking slightly. “Now say it in front of Kaushalya as your witness. Will you fulfill your boons to me, Raja Dasharath?” I lifted my chin and composed my face into as haughty an image as I could muster. If they wished me to be a jealous, faithless, prideful woman, I would give them what they wanted.

The Circe-fication of Hindu mythology, and every bit as good as that sounds.

I knew a little about Hinduism before reading this, but not the Ramayana. That's not a barrier to entry, however (although the book does assume some basic knowledge of Hindu cosmology). Instead, the concern is with the more universal issue of women and the sort of roles they're expected to play on these kinds of stories, regardless of culture. Through Kaikeyi, the supposedly traitorous queen who is usually depicted as the evil step-mother to the godly Rama, Patel picks apart the irony of these misogynistic portrayals. Women in myths and tales are offered a severely limited number of roles to play, and yet are demonised when they play them.