The Covenant of Water

Big Ammachi is the matriarch of the Parambil family for much of the book. She matures from a 12-year-old child bride into a competent and caring mother and grandmother. Her life is also marred by numerous tragedies: her stepson drowns; her husband—whom she grows to love despite the difficult beginning of their marriage—dies of an apparent stroke; her grandson also dies, impaled on a tree, after which her son becomes addicted to opium. Her beloved daughter-in-law leaves after the tragedy, only to return, give birth to a daughter, and then die by suicide—or so the family believes. Later, Big Ammachi’s own son will drown, though Big Ammachi does not live to witness this. She is the one who names the spate of drownings and other tragedies under which this family suffers. She calls it the Condition, and everyone else follows suit. It is a very nontraditional coming-of-age arc.

As Big Ammachi—the name is ironic, as she is a small woman, but with a large maternal presence—grows into herself, she learns how to love her much older husband. At one point, she prays about their relationship: “As with anything so rare and precious, it comes with a new anxiety: the fear of losing him” (59), and she remembers when he almost turned away from the marriage but came back: “Because I am, Lord.