The protagonist sometimes seems dead despite being so full of life.
The author has written eruditely about changing times and life in Kolkata. How a region that saw intense ideological and religious conflict in the 1970s, together with the government’s haughtiness and total indifference, has managed to embrace modernity while not forgetting the problems and upheavals of the past.
All of the main characters have been persuasively made stakeholders in the region’s turbulent past and prosperous future by the author.
The female protagonist and our hero exhibit a wide spectrum of emotions, and the tightly plotted narrative never skips a beat. Although it slows down a little in the middle, it’s still a worthwhile read.