-
A Case of Indian Marvels
A Case of Indian Marvels is the first major anthology of short stories by India’s most exciting new writers. The book pulls together the very best work of authors belonging to the millennial generation (born between 1981 and 1996) and Generation Z (born between the late 1990s and early 2010s). The forty stories in the volume explore every aspect of the Indian ethos in original and electrifying ways. Some stories deal with the dark times India is passing through, others are about life in the country’s villages, small towns, and big cities; there are tales about various aspects of contemporary Indian society and others set in the future or the ancient past. Some of the writers, including Kanishk Tharoor, Madhuri Vijay, Hansda Sowvendra Shekhar, Meena Kandasamy, Prayaag Akbar, Samhita Arni, Neel Patel, and Avinuo Kire, have already received considerable acclaim for books they have published, others are working on debut collections of stories and novels that are expected to be published soon. These writers will dominate the literary scene in the twenty-first century, and on the evidence of the work represented in this volume, the future of Indian literature is in very good hands.
-
The Solitude of Emperors
Unflinching. Unsentimental. Deeply moving. I loved it - Kiran Desa. We do not know what to do with one of our most precious resources, solitude, and so we fill it up with noise and clutter, Suffocating in the small-town world of his parents, Vijay is desperate to escape to the raw energy of Bombay in the early 1990s. His big chance arrives unexpectedly when the family servant, Raju, is recruited by a right-wing organization. As a result of an article he writes about the increasing power of sectarian politicians, Vijay gets a job in a small Bombay publication, The Indian Secularist. There he meets Rustom Sorabjeethe inspirational founder of the magazine who opens Vijays eyes to the damage caused to the nation by the mixing of religion and politics. A year after his arrival in Bombay, Vijay is caught up in violent riots that rip through the city, a reflection of the upsurge of fundamentalism everywhere in the country. He is sent to a small tea town in the Nilgiri mountains to recover, but finds that the unrest in the rest of India has touched this peaceful spot as well, specifically a spectacular shrine called The Tower of God, which is the object of political wrangling. He is befriended by Noah, an enigmatic and colourful character who lives in the local cemetery and quotes Pessoa, Cavafy and Rimbaud but is ostracized by a local elite obsessed with little more than growing their prized fuchsias. As the discord surrounding the local shrine comes to a head, Vijay tries to alert them to the dangers, but his intervention will have consequences which he could never have foreseen. The Solitude of Emperors is a stunningly perceptive novel about modern India, about what motivates fundamentalist beliefs, and what makes someone driven, bold or mad enough to make a stand. A master storyteller - Time. Brings the art of grand narrative back to the Indian novel India Today. David Davidar is one of the most remarkable people in publishing - Scotland on Sunday. In the best sense, he knows how to tell a good story Independent on Sunday. Davidars writing is a joy - Glamour