The most pitiless in Christendom… It was a long colonial moment. The Portuguese arrived in Goa with a sword in one hand and a crucifix in the other. They would stay for 450 years. When god died is set against the dark backdrop of the Inquisition, a religious tribunal set up for the suppression of heresy and the enforcement of Catholic orthodoxy. In 1662, Maria de Furtado sails to Goa from Lisbon to marry a nobleman selected for her by the Crown. Just a few hours before the wedding, her fiancé dies in the arms of his mulatto slave. Maria is forced to marry a Goan. The relationship,imbued with toxicity from the start, is poisoned further by her inability to have his child. A decade later, Maria falls in love. Marco, a successful Portuguese merchant, lives in the shadow of his Jewish lineage. On discovering their relationship, Maria’s husband unleashes the savagery of the Inquisition on them. As the novel hurtles to its violent end, Maria is offered the chance to avenge her lover’s death. Exploring religion and race, love and loyalty, identity and survival, When god died is a searing story that asks the reader to reconsider what it means to win in the name of God.
