Poonachi: Or the Story of a Black Goat opens Goodreads in a new tab

Poonachi, a mysterious black goat, arrives in a drought-stricken village and is taken in by an old man and his wife, who nurse the feeble kid with great care. As she grows and bears kids of her own, her life unfolds against a backdrop of poverty, hunger, politics and cruelty. Told from the goat's own point of view, this allegorical novel by Perumal Murugan, translated from the Tamil by N. Kalyan Raman, is a tender and unsparing portrait of survival and the human condition.