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A passage to India
This month we bring you a selection of books that look at India through the ages including Hari Kunzru's extravagant The Impressionist, Mulk Raj Anand's classic The Untouchables, EM Forsters magnificant A Passage to India and Rupa Bajwa's stunning debut The Sari Shop. Click on the title to find out more about the book.
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The Impressionist
In India, at the birth of the last century, an infant is brought howling into the world, his remarkable paleness marking him out from his brown-skinned fellows. Revered at first, he is later cast out from his wealthy home when his true parentage is revealed. So begins Pran Nath’s odyssey of self-discovery – a journey that will take him from the streets of Agra, via the red light disrict of Bombay, to the green lawns of England and beyond – as he struggles to understand who he really is.
Click here to see what the Belper Book Group thought of The Impressionist.
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Untouchable
In Mulk Raj Anand's finest and most controversial novel he conveys precisely, with urgency and barely disguised fury, what it might feel like to be one of India's Untouchables. Bakha is a young man, a proud and even an attractive young man, but none the less he is an outcast in a system that is now only slowly changing and was then as cruel and debilitating as that of apartheid. Into this re-creation of one day in the life of Bakha, sweeper and latrine-cleaner, Anand poured a vitality, fire and richness of detail that have caused him to be acclaimed as this century's greatest revealer of the 'other' India.
Click here to see what the Top Literary Cats though of Untouchable. |
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A Passage to India
When Adela and her elderly companion Mrs Moore arrive in the Indian town of Chandrapore, they quickly feel trapped by its insular and prejudiced British community. Determined to explore the 'real India', they seek the guidance of the charming and mercurial Dr Aziz, a cultivated Indian Muslim. But a mysterious incident occurs while they are exploring the Marabar caves with Aziz, and the well-respected doctor soon finds himself at the centre of a scandal. A masterly portrait of a society in the grip of imperialism, A Passage to India compellingly depicts the fate of individuals caught between the great political and cultural conflicts of the modern world. |
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The Sari Shop
Young Ramchand rushes through the dusty streets of Amritsar, once again late for work. Chastised by his boss, he takes his place among the cottons and silks of the sari shop, selling yards of cloth to the wealthy and fashionable women of the town. Offered a glimpse of a more opulent world, Ramchand is seduced by the idea that he might somehow better himself. But making dreams real will come at a price that a poor shop assistant might not be able to pay. Funny, compelling and unflinchingly honest, The Sari Shop is a heartbreaking story of a young man’s struggle to be someone else and a brilliantly clear-sighted debut. |
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Author interviews
