The ramayana, one of the worlds greatest epics, is also a tragic love story. In this brilliant retelling, chitra banerjee divakaruni places sita at the centre of the novel this is sitas version. The forest of enchantments is also a very human story of some of the other women in the epic, often misunderstood and relegated to the margins kaikeyi, surpanakha, mandodari. A powerful comment on duty, betrayal, infidelity and honour, it is also about womens struggle to retain autonomy in a world that privileges men, as chitra transforms an ancient story into a gripping, contemporary battle of wills. While the ramayana resonates even today, she makes it more relevant than ever, in the underlying questions in the novel how should women be treated by their loved ones what are their rights in a relationship when does a woman need to stand up and say, enough