ESTUARY BRINGS ALIVE THE DIFFERENT WAYS—ABSURD AND ENDEARING BY TURNS—IN WHICH A MAN AND HIS YOUNG SON NAVIGATE THE CONTEMPORARY WORLD. IN THE PROCESS, IT PEELS BACK THE LAYERS OF KUMARASURAR’S LONELINESS: THE HURT OF A MARRIED MAN WHOSE WIFE CARES ONLY FOR THE HAPPINESS OF THEIR CHILD, THE ENDLESS MONOTONY OF AN OFFICE JOB AND THE STRUGGLE OF THE SALARIED MIDDLE-CLASS TO GIVE THEIR CHILDREN THE BEST CHANCE OF SUCCESS. PERUMAL MURUGAN’S LATEST NOVEL, HIS FIRST IN AN URBAN SETTING, IS ALSO A RAZOR-SHARP PARODY OF EVERYTHING FROM E-COMMERCE TO THE FITNESS INDUSTRY, ART APPRECIATION TO POLITICAL MANIPULATION, CRAM SCHOOLS TO SOCIAL NETWORKS. THROUGH A MEDITATIVE EXPLORATION OF A FATHER’S EMOTIONAL LANDSCAPE, MURUGAN TELLS OF A WORLD WRECKED BY UNCHECKED CONSUMERISM AND AN OBSESSION WITH GROWTH, WHERE TECHNOLOGY OVERRIDES COMMON SENSE AND DEGREES DON’T GUARANTEE EDUCATION. AND, WITH CHARACTERISTIC TENDERNESS, HE ALSO WEAVES IN A WAY TO REDEMPTION.