Flip through this pacy, gritty novel about our times
Immerse yourself in this political tale about two boys
Published 22.11.22, 06:01 AM
Image courtesy: Amazon.in
No Way In, published by Bloomsbury India, is a pacy political novel set in Calcutta, telling the parallel story of two boys – Subho and Dinu – who grow up in different parts of the same house. Jolpori in South Calcutta is a genteel mansion, where industrialist Rana lives with his book reviewer wife Ila and their only son. Serving them all day and slaving in the kitchen is Sabita, who lives with her son Dinu on the terrace, in a single modest room.
As the 2014 elections polarises the state (and the country) irredeemably, two men descend from Assam into the city. Ejaz is looking for his wife and son, but his arrival threatens the delicate balance of all their lives. The novel reminds of the central questions that animate humanity still; the answers however are more difficult to find.
Former business journalist and news anchor Udayan Mukherjee has displayed remarkable range in his second calling as a writer. If his debut novel Dark Circles was vintage literary fiction about family matters, Death in the Himalayas was detective fiction at its finest. (Some of us are still waiting for Neville Wadia to return!) More recently, Essential Items captured the pandemic through its memorable short stories that glided across barriers of region, class and community, reminding us of that time even as we were simultaneously living it and beginning to forget.
