There is something arrestingly mystifying about Peichi. The novel written by Malaysian Tamil writer M. Navin was banned in December 2020 by the Malaysian government under section 7(1) of the Printing Presses and Publications Act 1984, because it ‘might be detrimental to public order, morals and public interest’, as an official statement had then said. But Peichi is a spectacular exploration of Tamil life in Malaysia — a territory largely unexplored in the Tamil literary landscape. The novel follows Kopperan, a traditional medical practitioner and priest of Pechi temple, to Malaysia. He is driven by his fear of the goddess he so devotedly worships; she protects as Pechi but also annihilates as Peichi (