Grove Press 2006. 357 p.
Winner of the Booker Prize 2006.

A fine work!

The novel starts in the middle of 1980’s in Northeast India, where Sai lives with her grandfather. From that time and place, the story twists and turns to tell about the past events in the grandfather’s life, about the fate of Sai’s parents who died in the Soviet, about the sympathetic cook, and about the ambivalent love story of Sai and her tutor Gyan. Another story in the story tells about the cook’s son Biju, who went to USA to seek his fortune, like so many Indians and others.

The characteristic of the novel is the historical bow of losses, from generation to generation. People seeking a better life are disappointed in their struggle, and still they cannot live in peace. The immigrants in NY are either profiteers or pitiful dummies, while the young rebels in North India are described just childish.

Yet the style of the text is not deeply dark nor just serious. The same features – fastness, colourfulness, wit and (dark) humour – that I loved in the fantasy Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard are present.

EDIT 16.1.2008 Sent as RABCK :)

-ruzena

Thank you very much! :)

Now I will be able to finish it, at last!

Hugs.