This article reads the novel Aathi (‘The gift in green’), written in 2011 by the Malayalam author Sarah Joseph, within the frameworks of Blue Humanities and Island Studies. Keralam's cultural geography is inherently entwined with its coastal and aquatic environment, necessitating an examination of this South Indian coastal state through a hydrological lens, especially in light of anthropogenic environmental instabilities. This study intends to analyse how the centrality of water in this text impacts its narrative and themes by positing the imaginary island of the text as a utopian aquapelago. As an early feminist writer in Kerala, Sarah Joseph incorporates ecofeminist sensibilities in the text, allowing for a re-exploration of discourses around women and the environment from an aquatic perspective. By examining Aathi as a South Asian literary work, this article also aims to deepen the understanding of the region's environmental, cultural, and social milieu, emphasising the need for multiple voices and perspectives in dealing with water-related issues.

AquapelagoKeralamImaginary IslandUtopian IslandAnthropocene