SHORTLISTED FOR THE AUTHORS CLUB BEST FIRST NOVEL AWARDSHORTLISTED FOR THE GORDON BOWKER VOLCANO PRIZEAN OBSERVER BEST DEBUT OF THE YEAROne of the best debuts this year GuardianAn intoxicating portrait of modern India Terrific Daily MailHugely engaging written with verve intelligence and compassion Irish TimesIndia 1992 The country is ablaze with riots In Lucknow tenyearold Shubhankar witnesses a terrible act of mob violence that will alter the course of his life one to which his family turn a blind eyeAs he approaches adulthood Shabby focuses on the only path he believes will buy him an escape good school good degree good job good car But when he arrives in Mumbai in his twenties he begins to question whether there might be other roads he could choose His new friends Syed and Shruti are asking the same questions together buoyed by the freedom of the big city they are rewriting their storiesBut as the rising tide of nationalism sweeps across the country and their friendship becomes the rock they all cling to this new life suddenly seems fragile And before Shabby can chart his way forward he must reckon with the ghosts of his past A joy to read a full universe of feeling an effortless pageturner by a born storyteller Max Porter author of Grief is the Thing with FeathersDevastating and intimate and political and radical all at the same time Bhattacharyas storytelling talents are limitless Nikesh ShuklaA wonderful timely contribution to world literature Tsitsi...
