The Impressionist

Kunzru, Hari

ISBN 10: 052594642X / ISBN 13: 9780525946427

Published by Dutton Adult, 2002

About this Item

1st printing with archival grade protective cover. Price corner intact. No marks, but DJ has clean tear on back cover near ISBN (see photos), nearly imperceptible with protective cover in place. This book is in excellent condition, nearly as new. Photos are of the book you will receive. Twenty percent of book sale profits are donated to the World Literacy Foundation.

Seller Inventory # ABE-1739665083578

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Impressionist
• Publisher: Dutton Adult
• Publication Date: 2002
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 052594642X
• ISBN 13: 9780525946427
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: 1st Edition
• Condition: Fine
• Dust Jacket Condition: Near Fine
• Signed: Signed by Author(s)

About this title

Synopsis

Pran Nath Razdan, the boy who will become the Impressionist, was fathered in circuitous circumstances by an Englishman and passed off by his Indian mother as the child of her husband, a wealthy man of high caste. Growing up in luxury just downriver from the Taj Mahal, at fifteen the news of Pran's true parentage is revealed and he is tossed out into the street - a pariah and an outcast. Thus begins an extraordinary, near mythical journey of a young man who must invent himself to survive - not once, but many times.
Imprisoned in a brothel and dressed in women's clothes, his sensuous beauty is exploited as he is made to become Rukhsana, a pawn in a game between colony and empire. To a depraved British major he becomes Clive, an object of desire taught to be a model English schoolboy. Escaping to Bombay he begins a double life as Robert, dutiful foster child to a Scottish missionary couple, and as Pretty Bobby, errand boy and sometime pimp to the tawdry women of the city's most notorious district. But as political unrest begins to stir, Pran finds himself in the company of a doomed Englishman - an orphan named Jonathan Bridgeman. Having learned quickly that perception is a ready substitute for reality, Pran soon finds himself on a ship with Bridgeman's passport. First in London, then at Oxford, the Impressionist hones his chameleon-like skills, making himself whoever and whatever he needs to be to obtain what he desires.

About the Author

Born in London and raised in Essex, Hari Kunzru is a freelance journalist and editor. He has written for a variety of English and international publications, including The Guardian, Daily Telegraph, The Economist, and Wired and was named "Young Travel Writer of the Year" by the Observer in 1999. This is his first novel.