My Books

“Broken Chains” is a tale of forbidden love and the fight against systemic oppression. I was immediately captivated by the first sentence of the novel. It was hard to put down, and I learned a great deal about the foundations of caste superiority and societal ostracization in India during the 1950s and 60s. This book is a deeply moving narrative that critiques casteism, religious bigotry, and societal oppression while celebrating the transformative power of love, resilience, and truth. It is a poignant tale of two individuals who suffered religious bigotry, violence, and marginalization as they break free from the chains of tradition and prejudice, advocating for dignity, equality, and shared humanity. Well done, Matthew Isaac. I would love to see this turn into a major Hollywood film.” –Ms. Brenda Pickleman, Hollywood Actress and Artist, Chicago, Illinois.

“Broken Chains is not merely a love story or a political novel. It is a moral investigation into how freedom is defined, who grants it, and what it ultimately costs. It confronts religion, caste, patriarchy, and institutional power with fearless honesty. It moved me, disturbed me, and reminded me that the work of liberation—anywhere—is never complete. It deserves to be read widely. It deserves to be argued with. And above all, it deserves to be taken seriously. I thoroughly enjoyed reading Broken Chains.”  –Dr. Henry D’Souza, Professor of Social Work,  Grace Abbott School of Social Work, University of Nebraska at Omaha,  Omaha, Nebraska.

“Matthew Isaac’s novel Broken Chains is a profoundly moving work that exemplifies the transformative method, a distinguished form of novelistic expression. It is an impressive, gripping, and epic tale of forbidden love, an eloquent fusion of age-old injustices such as untouchability and religious bigotry, woven into a powerful exploration of the tensions between bigotry, faith, and science, and the deeper truths of the human condition that resonate with a universal audience.” –A. K. B. Pillai, Ph.D. (Columbia University, NY), Former Professor of Anthropology and Comparative Literature at the New Jersey University System of Higher Education, Medical Anthropologist, Former Fellow of the National Institute of Mental Health and Diplomate of the American Board of Medical Psychotherapists, and Founder and Chairperson of New York Institute of Integral Human Development, Inc., New York.

“Matthew Isaac has fashioned a classic forbidden love story complete with fascinating character development, intriguing and insightful dialogue, and an examination of the impact of rigid cultural traditions on the attempt of two individuals from different backgrounds to forge a life together. Though set in a particular cultural context, this challenging and provocative work raises questions of universal importance such as class discrimination, religious arrogance and bigotry and the relationship between religion and morality as well as the intellectual and academic collision between religion and science. Ultimately though, it is an uplifting story of the victory of true love and dedication over a myriad of obstacles.” –Dr. Dale Lanigan, Former Pastor and Asst. Professor Emeritus of Sociology and Criminal Justice, Lourdes University, Sylvania, Ohio.

“One of the most artfully empathetic and inspiring forbidden love stories of our time, Broken Chains confronts the bigotry of untouchability, the existential struggles of Dalits, and their physical and emotional oppression, as it exposes these injustices through the lens of evolutionary biology and illuminates society’s collective moral blindness, all rendered in a lucid and graceful style.” –Mr. Bala Sriraghavan, CEO/Co-Founder of Datanetiix Solutions, Inc., a global software development/ Services company based in Irvine, California.