Synopsis
Possessing a legendary beauty and singing voice, Anuradha Patwardhan of 1920s India begins a fairy-tale-like adulthood when she marries handsome and well-to-do doctor Vardhmaan, but their married years are challenged by the death of a first child, a villain's designs on their second child, and the arrival of a mysterious girl. 15,000 first printing.
Reviews
In his first novel, Bombay-born Shanghvi carves a magic realism–tinged niche for himself between Salman Rushdie and Arundhati Roy. In colonial India in the 1920s, Anuradha, a beautiful young bride, leaves her home in Udaipur and travels to Bombay to marry a man she has never met, the equally beautiful doctor, Vardhmaan. Shanghvi's India is an elegant, epicurean place: on the day of her departure Anuradha is serenaded by "an ostentation of peacocks that, just as the Marwar Express snorted its way out of Udaipur, unleashed their rain-beckoning cries of Megh-awuu, Megh-awuu...." The couple settles into Vardhmaan's familial home, and as beautiful people tend to, they have a stunning child, Mohan. This is all, of course, the setup for a fall; Mohan dies, and Anuradha and Vardhmaan descend into sadness and longing. The gloom lifts briefly when Anuradha goes away to Udaipur and brings back a 14-year-old orphan, Nandini, who sparks riots with her lascivious attire—the "mini sari"—and emerges as a national figure so important that even Gandhi asks to meet her. Anuradha and Vardhmaan, however, never quite recover from their loss, even when a new son, Shloka, is born. While not exactly purple, Shanghvi's prose can be a bit mauve: a simple necktie becomes "a dignified sartorial adjunct." Still, this is a sensual, delectable debut.
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The vibrant, lush, and sometimes chaotic backdrop of postcolonial India has become fertile ground for a burgeoning circle of Indian novelists that Shanghvi now joins. His first novel blends biting social commentary with a sprawling family saga, beginning with the marriage of the beautiful Anuradha and handsome Vardhmaan, who seem destined to lead a charmed life. But a hateful stepmother does what she can to interfere, and when their first child, Mohan, dies in a tragic accident, their lives take a downward spiral. Vardhmaan continues to be haunted by Mohan's death for years, causing an emptiness that threatens to sever his relationship with Anuradha. Their house, which is filled with the "wretched, infectious sadness" of ancient memories of unrequited love, seems to take on a sinister life of its own when their second child nearly dies at birth. In a narrative laced with poetic imagery, Shanghvi juxtaposes political commentary with magical realism, Bollywood's excesses with Gandhi's austerity. Part fairy tale, part satire, part love story--all come together in a marvelously inventive debut. Deborah Donovan
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