Chapter 57, titled “Invictus”, takes place in 1959 in the Manager’s Mansion in the village of M____.
The protagonist, Lenin Evermore, is just a week short of his ninth birthday when a mysterious illness struck his family.
In the morning, Lenin finds his parents and baby sister, Shyla, incapacitated with fever, inducing a state of panic.
Despite Lenin's efforts to nourish his family during this time, they continue to deteriorate rapidly.
We learn about his family's past; before Lenin was born, they were forced to flee their home in Parambil due to his father's troubles. Lenin's mother, Lizzi, took charge and helped the family find a new home.
Lenin's father, Kora, is unable to find and keep a job, meanwhile Lizzi brings in income as a midwife.
On Kora's final coherent interaction with Lenin, he imparts a cryptic advice: "Follow the straight path."
The following morning, Lenin discovers that his father and sister have died while his mother is on her deathbed.
Lenin, shocked and grieving, sets off to find food and comes across a Christian family's house which they have bolted shut due to the disease. He presses forward, encountering a thin pulayi woman who generously shares the food with him.
After disclosing his family's condition, the woman reveals that Lenin's family is afflicted with smallpox, a deadly disease which had brought many deaths in the area.
The chapter ends with the death of Lenin's mother from smallpox, and the arrival of a kind-looking priest, whom Lenin initially mistakes for an angel.