August 17 by S. Hareesh And Jayasree Kalathil [Paperback]

In an alternate version of history, the princely kingdom of Travancore (Thiruvithamkoor) refuses to join independent India on 17 August 1947 and instead declares itself a sovereign nation.

The novel follows the turbulent decades that follow through the accounts of a mysterious intelligence informant known only as "the CID." As the new republic experiences political conspiracies, coups, revolutions, betrayals, ideological conflicts, and struggles for power, the narrator chronicles the rise and decline of a nation that never existed—but feels uncannily real.

Blending historical events, political satire, folklore, myth, and imagination, the story examines how history is created, manipulated, and remembered. As reality and fiction increasingly intertwine, the novel questions whether nations are built on facts or on the stories people choose to believe.