The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy

He folded his fear into a perfect rose. He held it out in the palm of his hand. She took it from him and put it in her hair.
 
Estha and Rahel, seven-year-old twins, are growing up amidst vats of banana jam, mountains of peppercorns and scenes of political turbulence in Kerala. But when their beautiful young cousin Sophie arrives, their world is irrevocably shaken. An illicit liaison and tragedies both accidental and intentional expose things that lurk unsaid, in a country drifting dangerously towards unrest.