Great novels don’t come around that often, but you can always tell when one does. It might be about an unusual topic, or it might depict the familiar in a new way. Regardless, it has the power to take you to a different place.

The latest novel by author Shyam Selvadurai is called Mansions of the Moon, and it is an account of the marriage of Siddhartha. If you know anything about Buddhism, you would know that Siddhartha became Buddha, and that in order to follow his ascetic path he abandoned both his wife Yasodhara and their young son Rahula. The novel tells the story from Yasodhara’s perspective, and it is impossible not to sympathize with her plight, as her young husband leaves her in the middle of the night right after their child’s birth. What sort of a man does that? Is he a deadbeat, a hippie, or does the path to enlightenment not extend to the responsibilities of having a family?

“I’m not heteronormative so I don’t believe that a marriage must hold together no matter what,” Selvadurai tells me. “I was sensitive to his journey and how excruciating it was for him to make that choice. The call becomes greater than the marriage. Yes, there is the collateral damage on her and I want your sympathies to be with her, but also to have sympathy and understanding of his journey as well. Buddhists would say it was worth it.”

Having studied Hinduism and Buddhism in high school I knew enough to get into the novel fairly quickly, I was disappointed, however, that Selvadurai, a great gay writer whose novels Funny Boy and The Hungry Ghosts featured gay protagonists, had written a new novel without a hint of homosexuality. “I considered a gay subplot but it just didn’t work in this book,” he explains. “The story is of Yasodhara's journey, so homosexuality wouldn’t have crossed with her life. A novel is capacious but it has its limits.” 

Because it delves deep into history, a lot of research was required. “I had a scholar at the University of Toronto helping me. He was good at knowing what a novelist would need rather than what a PhD student might need. I did go to Nepal but little remains from 600 BC. Even the river changed directions. But I had good guides who showed me how to see the distant past in the present. For instance, the clothing that they wore back then is still worn in India today. This culture has a way of lasting over long periods.”

The writing in Mansions of the Moon is pure and clear. Selvadurai is an astonishing writer, very precise and vivid, very visual and devoid of confusion. There is a strong sense of location, which gives the book a ‘you are there’ quality. Just in case, Selvadurai includes a glossary of terms at the back. I never used it. Didn’t have to. I always knew exactly what he meant. Now, that’s technique.