Fortunately for the author and the novel, Thomas was unsuccessful and his lawsuit served only to bolster Roy's assertions throughout the novel that the caste system still greatly affects present-day Indian society. Soon after the book's release in 1997, a lawyer named Sabu Thomas attempted to have the book's last chapter removed because of its graphic description of sexual acts between members of different castes. The God of Small Things infamously enraged some leftist Keralans upon its release. Yet Roy's grand introduction into the fiction canon was not without incident. This made Roy the first Indian woman and non-expatriate to win the award. Upon its publication, the novel became a bestseller, going on to win England's premier literary award, the Booker Prize, in 1997. Rights to the book were demanded worldwide in 21 countries from India to New York. Upon finishing the novel in 1996 after four years of writing, Roy was offered an advance of half a million pounds. To me, I couldn't think of a better location for a book about human beings." Because of her ingrained understanding of Ayemenem's diversity and cultural paradoxes, Roy allowed her imagination to run wild in a familiar landscape. When you see all the competing beliefs against the same background you realize how they all wear each other down.
I was aware of the different cultures when I was growing up and I'm still aware of them now. When asked why she chose Ayemenem as the setting for her novel, Roy replied, "It was the only place in the world where religions coincide there's Christianity, Hinduism, Marxism and Islam and they all live together and rub each other down. It is semi-autobiographical in that it incorporates, embellishes, and greatly supplements events from her family's history. The God of Small Things is Arundhati Roy's first and only novel to date.
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