Amish Tripathi, or Amish as he prefers to be called, is one of India’s most popular contemporary fiction writers. More than five million copies of his books have been printed and his works—dealing mostly with mythology—have been translated into 19 languages.

Set in the 3,400 BC, ‘Raavan: Enemy of Aryavarta’, tells the story of the King of Lanka, from the time he was born till he kidnaps Sita. The book is the third part of the five-part Ram Chandra series, the first two being ‘Ram: Scion of Ikshvaku’ and ‘Sita: Warrior of Mithila’. You needn’t have read the first two to understand and enjoy the latest installment. All three are multilinear narratives that basically set the background for the next two books in the series. It’s only from the fourth part onwards that the characters come together in one main narrative.

Most of us know Raavan as the villain in the epic Ramayana. Much of what we know and how we feel about Raavan has been shaped by the startling image of a ten-headed monster we saw in various versions of Ramayana on television. But, apparently, even in the original version of Ramayana—Valmiki’s Ramayana—there is a certain depth to Raavan’s character, something that’s completely missing in modern interpretations of the myth.

In Amish’s version, Raavan is an artist, musician, brilliant scholar who loves his books, and a ruthless businessman. It’s losing the only woman he loved that brings out the monster in him. In the book, Raavan belongs to the Nagas, a feared and cursed tribe (a group that featured in Amish’s Meluha series). As a child, he flees with his mother, Kaikesi, and uncle, Mareech, to protect his younger brother, Kumbhakarna, who is also a Naga and is ordered to be killed at birth. Much of the book is about how Raavan beats all odds to become the world’s wealthiest and most powerful man.

You also get to see a different side of Kumbhakarna than the one you have grown up knowing. You witness a kinder version of the character—one who isn’t a monster that Ramayana makes him out to be. He is intelligent, brave and focused on protecting his brother, which he considers to be his dharma. By the end of the book, there’s also a link, a possible explanation to Kumbhakarna’s legendary tendency to sleep for days on end.

There are times when the story is too preachy and the writing feels a little off—almost like someone forced the author to write at a gunpoint. But Raavan is a fascinating character and Amish has made him so multi-faceted that you want to get to know him more and thus keep turning the pages. You already know where the story is headed but that doesn’t matter; it’s the character you are discovering here. Also, there is a big reveal in the end that gives the story a nice little twist.

At its heart, Raavan: Enemy of Aryavarta is a love story and Raavan, for a change, isn’t the villain here.