Voice from a Past, View from a Distance

“I have a whimsical tale to tell, starting beside a grave…” – this is the opening line of the novel Newton’s Brain. Even before knowing what’s coming, what captivates us right from the start is the voice of the unnamed narrator. 

The story begins with the narrator remembering his friend Bedřich Wünscher, who was killed at the Battle of Sadowa (Königgrätz) in the Austro-Prussian War. Friends from their childhood, both of them are inclined to science, driven by curiosity: while the narrator enjoys mathematics, Bedřich develops an aptitude for magic tricks. Hiding away from the world, they form a secret world of books, instruments and experiments in the narrator’s garret. Bedřich enhances his skilfulness and dexterity in doing tricks, taking from science or pseudo-science and turning them into magic performances. At moments, even Bedřich’s closest accomplice, the narrator, is dumbfounded by his performances. But all this is cut short, and the two friends are separated from each other, away from their fascinations and aspirations. Bedřich is sent to join the army cadet of the Royal and Imperial Prince Constantine of Russia Infantry Regiment. The silent friendship is then dotted with few letters until one day the narrator receives a letter from a Parish priest. The narrator witnesses the graveyard burial of his friend, whose skull had been split by a pallasch in the battle.

Now forget that Bedřich had ever died!

He comes back again one evening to invite the narrator to the welcome banquet at the chateau, across from the narrator’s home. Bedřich has set everything up to put on his grand performance like he once wished. We’re already in the midst of a mystery, a dream, a stupefying illusion, and a believable reality. The novel is a romanetto, and these elements are expected. There is no excuse other than believing the science. Until we know, something is an illusion, it is reality; just like a science unknown is magic. Like the narrator, we again hitch the ride of grand illusions!

But I do have one favour to ask: If I do fall in battle – mourn thou not! Call all our old friends together and remember me over brimming glasses!...

If you fulfil this last wish of mine, you may be sure that I shall visit you again, at least once…

The narrator is caught unprepared in the maze of corridors at the chateau until he finally finds himself in the great banquet hall – among princes, aristocrats, people from church, army officers, people from parliament, doctors, writers, scholars, and many other dignitaries – where the trick and the intelligence are going to unfold: Bedřich has replaced his brain with the Newton’s brain and he has so much to tell about our age and its aspirations, its weakness, futility, its tragedy, its false believes and hopes, its war and blindness, its battles, brutality and deaths, its ego and pride… Once we are through with our existence, once we’ve seen enough of what we are, and once we’ve understood what there is to understand, Bedřich reveals something more: a device that can travel faster than the speed of light and a spectacle that lets you see across billions of miles in the space. Where are they going to take it? What will they see? Which colours has painted our history? What message we have sent across the space? Newton’s Brain takes us on a voyage! Bedřich’s devices and Arbes’s literary devices both are fantastic! It is quite suiting to accompany the story with AI generated images. They have perfectly captured the mood and ambience of the novel.

“It is, I maintain, easier to think with someone else’s brain, boast of someone else’s idea and make oneself and others happy than to spark an idea of one’s own out of one’s own brain…”

“Each of us thinks in his own way, each conceives of, defines and gives names to various concepts and objects in the manner in which he has been taught, the manner to which he is accustomed, the manner that has taken in his fancy. Whatever the consideration behind how he name things, nothing changes – they remain just as they truly are…”

Jakub Arbes is a resourceful writer. Science, history, philosophy, critical and logical reasoning, mystery, social commentary, humour – Newton’s Brain has blended it all. I couldn’t believe this novel was written in 1877; it was way ahead of its time. The novel takes us on a journey to reflect back on our past and present. The novel advocates creativity, humanism and peace amidst war and innovation for warfare. The world is just like Arbes and Bedřich had understood it; the world has become just like they had understood it. The novel reflects our age of pride, prejudices and foolishness, questions the achievements, satires or even mocks our status quo, interrogates our advances which have served to harm each other than to protect our collective existence. We, Our Purpose and the Oblivion – this romanetto connects three dots, just like a triangle. One may tend to find Bedřich’s discourse somewhat pessimistic, a dystopian view of life. We may disagree. But we cannot ignore the essence of the novel, its provocation and urgency. There is something we’ll remember of, between the mystery and science. Isn’t it the place we linger all the time? Newton’s Brain narrative style is playful but we can also hear the echo of war and the bereavement of the age in its wake.

For me, the novel is the Triangle! You’ll know what I mean when you read it. 

Highly recommended for the fans of Jules Verne, H. G. Wells and Edgar Allan Poe (That must cover all of us.)!

I wish more of Jakub Arbes’s works (romanetto) were translated into English. David Short’s translation and Peter Zusi’s introduction are really commendable!

Book Info:

Author: Jakub Arbes 
Original Text: Czech 
Translator: David Short 
Publisher: Jantar Publishing 

Source: Review Copy from the Publisher

An Earthquake Chronicle

On July 28, 1976, a major earthquake hits the Tangshan region of Hebei Province, China. Among the victims is a family of Wan and Li Yuanni and their children – Xiaodeng (daughter) and Xiaoda (son). When the children are trapped under a fallen structure, Li Yuanni is faced with life-death-dilemma, and has to choose to save between her twin children. Xiaoda is rescued, who would lose one of his arms, while Xiaodeng, left under the rubble and thought to be dead, survives it, but would lose memory due to brain injury. Wan also dies in the event, away from his home. Over a dawn, the life of one of the happiest families in the neighborhood is changed forever. 

Aftershocks instilling fear among those who survived in the Tangshan earthquake subsides, but the trauma and tragedy left in the wake of the earthquake would haunt Li Yuanni's family for the rest of their lives. Aftershock is a story spanning around 30 years – from 1968 to 2006, and across continents, from China to Canada – that connects Li Yuanni's family, separated by the earthquake.

1976 is not only the year of the Tangshan earthquake, but also the year Mao Zedong had died, who'd led the Cultural Revolution in China. In Aftershock, Zhang Ling also offers us a closer look at the families and communities, around the end of the revolution; though the novel doesn't tend to be political. What we find at the heart of this chronicle is a family, disrupted by the earthquake and its aftermath. The tenderness with which Ling has developed her characters, their beliefs, flaws, hope and pain carries a sentiment that shapes a family history – a chronicle of trauma.

The trees had lived for many years. It had seen the stable boy of Emperor Kangxi watering the horses in this yard, and it had heard the young, reckless Boxers drinking and plotting a rebellion on the street corner. It had witnessed the dirty underbellies of Japanese planes as they hovered overhead, dropping their black waster over the land. The tree had seen all the ups and downs for countless years, witnessing both the thrill and the desolation of dynastic change.

After Xiaodeng is taken by her adoptive parents, her life takes a distinct arc. Thirty years after being separated from her twin brother and mother, with her memory cut off from the day of the earthquake, she now lives in Toronto, Canada and is an author. Unable to open the window in her dream, that would enable her to see her past life, Xiaodeng still bears the pain of her head concussion and grapples with emotional trauma, anxiety and insomnia, interfering with her new life. At the other end of the world in Tangshan, China, Li Yuanni lives in the memory of her dead husband, and thought-to-be dead daughter, unwilling to relocate with Xiaoda, who earns a good life. Alternating between the past and present, covering three decades of a family separation, Ling places the two developments – Xiaodeng's world and Li Yuanni's world – side by side, each with their own difficulties. For a while, it seems that, the two worlds can never connect. However, a thread – stretched by love at one end and by lifelong discomfort at the other – find its purpose.

The mysteries of life and death that took a lifetime to unravel in normal times were revealed in a single prod when there was a natural disaster.

Despair? It’s like a man who is buried under the ruins, and he sees a sliver of sky through a gap. The hope of survival is so close, he can almost touch it with a finger. The distance between his finger and the sky, that's life and death. Hope is so near, but he just can't catch it. What kind of despair is that?

Zhang Ling is already an established and crafted novelist, and her prowess of storytelling justifies any subject. In Aftershock, Ling doesn't take a huge leap and explain things from outside, reclining solely on the cause and effect of the earthquake. Rather, her take has been to bring the story as close to the individuals/characters and their lives as possible. We realize, how important is one's family and how grave is the loss. In this sense, the novel explores human relations and its strength, strain, conflicts and grief. It is also a glimpse into Chinese family life showing how lives of those who suffered and witnessed the earthquake was/became different from the rest.

Ling is adept at transforming little details into impressive metaphors and similes: words that smash holes in the ground; laughter that pokes holes in the thick heat; shadow like quilts with no seam; snore as loud as rolling thunders.  She has profound sense of where there is gravity and depth, and what needs to be said. Ling Otherwise, one wouldn't be able to love the characters. But in Aftershock, we know them, as if personally, and understand them, open to their vulnerabilities, and their palpable empathy. Ling's narrative has access to both the inner and outer world of her characters, and it is only by dealing with their complexities and conflicts that we come to understand them; even through moments of simplicity, smile and tears.

When new branches sprang up on the oleander in front of the doors, she knew it was once again a new spring. When the geese flew southward in a line overhead, she knew summer was coming to an end. When the store windows in the street began displaying red-packaged goods and the sound of firecrackers rang out in the air, she knew another year was ending.

Ling's detailings are vivid and she has employed playful transitions to navigate through. Like I said earlier, a family is at the heart of the story, but there is another core too – human emotions. Ling has tended to them as a mother would to her baby, and I believe this novel must be very close to her.  1968, 1976, 2006 and all the years in between, which Ling has used as timestamps, to form her characters, to deal with their fate and complexities, coming towards the end, all fit as jigsaw pieces, finally bringing the denouement. 

Through fine combing of the details and smooth characterizations, Ling creates love for the characters. Readers will find themselves smiling at natural details, for their ease, and for perfect unfolding and pauses. The characters in Aftershock are very delicate – but we all are that way, someway – clinging to some hope, seeking some solace and love. Such portrayal has made them more believable. To conclude, Aftershock connects not only pieces of a tragic event of history, but also makes them unforgettable by bringing forth human emotions, that suffer, endure, hope and wait to make peace with life. Ling guides us to the wetlands of living, shows us around and brings us safe back home – we come out different.

Author: Zhang Ling
Original Text: Chinese

Translator: Shelly Bryant

Publisher: Amazon Publishing

Source: Over The River Public Relations/Review Copy from the Publisher

When Art Meets Life

 This book only could have been written by a poet.

'It rains outside one of the windows, snows outside the other.' begins the novel. We find ourselves in this seemingly uncommon play of nature. We are ready for this illusion or fantasy or dream sequence or surreal experience of a budding poet – Pushkar.

Pushkar, a reclusive and introvert young poet, lives with his journalist father and music teacher/singer mother in a rented house. Set in urban Kolkata, there is bustle outside, Pujo is around, but inside such houses, artistry and literary vocation have filled the minds and space, like literature and music do. Beyond the elusive windows of rain and snow, the characters reveal us the lights and shadows of different walks life, as the author takes us close to their personal lives, one of whom is Pushkar, who keeps a secret diary of poems.

Pushkar meets Nirban, who is an editor of a literary journal, and for the first time his poetry is going to be published. He also meets a circle of like-minded friends, mostly young writers and poets, among whom he finally finds his safe haven. As Pushkar is carving something for and out of his poetic vocation, there are so many lives in the story, as if intertwined with each other, struggling, compromising, relishing, remembering a separate fate, a distinct life, with or without choices: Gunjan, a passionate teacher of English literature is caught between his love for literature and melancholy, which is gripping him; Abhijit, Pushkar's friend from school days, is finally coming to an end of his love relation; Saheli, who is among few of the readers of Pushkar's secret diary, has found her courage, just like Pushkar, to elate their relationship. Ishita, Pritha, Asmita, Anuja, Saswata, a milkwood tree, Abanish, Suhrid and many others – these characters come alive in the novel, and one feels that, they live even after the last page, somewhere in Kolkata – we'll just have to look for them.

When the strains of the songrung out in the washed-out, bluish light of the chic, tiny veranda: [It seems I have grown fond of the haze], the music, the evening, the fading horns of the rickshaws in the distance, the hazy gatherings on the street corners, the sound of fish being fried in some house in the vicinity, lights coming on in some attic and TVs being switched on, it all began to seem illusory to Pushkar.

Nirban's great plan, to create something worth remembering all their lives, is taking shape and Pujo is around. Hopes and aspirations of young writers have heightened. But, some lives are sinking, some gloom have descended upon few characters, and some hopes have failed. Art is burgeoning in the streets and rooms of Kolkata, but somewhere the shadows have settled too. Some novels are not read for the pleasure of ascending plots, and A House of Rain and Snow is one of them. We are transported there. We can empathize the inner worlds of the characters, their dreams and endurance. Some characters have just discovered their happiness and peace, while few live as if in a hallucinatory realm of past, present and grievances. Amidst all this, we see lives, circled, protected and inspired by poetry and music.

I am not one to glorify sorrow. What I want to tell you is that a person who can feel sadness must know their heart is their greatest wealth. It is sorrow that sets us apart from each other, makes us unique. Like what Tolstoy says.

Failed poets, shy poets, forming poets, poets hiding behind and coming front, those who have found refuse in literature but have also found sadness and delusion in everyday life, those who have found their pride and honor in their music – this novel places literature and music at its center, and we see characters as if circling them like planets revolving around the sun. But, planets rotate too, and have their own chemistry, serene and harsh. That's what we see in the individuals, their formation and paths. Experimenting and seamlessly embracing poetry, prose, letters, monologue, fragmented texts, literary references, the novel builds a world, personal and evocative, like an artwork. The playfulness of the text, just like in modern poetry, has imparted poetic luster to the narrative voice. And nothing can be segmented from this novel, nothing can be removed. It may offer different reading experience to others, but I have found its joy in rereading while preparing for this review. This novel is meant to be reread time and again, especially by someone who finds their solace and voice in literature.

Baba is not asleep. Papers are up in the air, Baba and his table are airborne as well. As is the dim lamp on the table. Baba is still writing, his words floating on the surface of the page in front of him.

There are instances in the novel, which are dreamy and surreal, but they just seem to be an elevated poetic vision. It doesn't blur the narrative, it seeps through it, and merge with realities. From the A Confession by Srijato, we gather that this novel is deeply personal for him, as if a bildungsroman of a poet, and it has been rightfully justified.

My impression of the novel, its ambience and gradation of light is of some concoction of love, for poetry in particular, seeping into you.  Here literature and life becomes one, superbly done in a modernist style. The narrative viewpoints, glimpses, raw and dreamy description of urban setting are simply brilliant. Shifts in space and time, techniques used in the narrative, sentence and scene composition, similes confirming to alienation and elusiveness, and the casualness and the strength of it, unpredictable animation and personification of objects, descriptive and evocative prose, contemplative endings to chapters – all this evoke emotion for the passage of time. I was deeply impressed by the artful composition of paragraphs, author giving them the perfect last sentence, and flawlessly completing the mood of the paragraph.

… like an unused boat tied at the fisherman's wharf because it cannot withstand the waves of the sea.

… he resembles the narrow balcony of some cheap hotel where discarded things are dumped throughout the year and where only a few venture once in a while.

Memories can morph the incident a little and represent it in a slightly distorted manner, unable to turn down the commands of your expectation. There is nothing wrong with it. They are your memories, your desires, after all.

This is a supernova of introversion, a story of parted lives connected with art. This is also a story about family, friends, love, alienation, and exploration of individualities and its hope for life. This is a story of passion and patience for people enamored with art and literature. Poetic pieces in the chapters, have acted like some background music. And, writer's use of natural elements as symbols are just perfect. He shows us the fissures, and then he shows us the expanse. A House of Rain and Snow is a walk-through of Kolkata city, a glimpse into some lives that make up the crowd, their nuances – from those 'flickering scenes', as the author has called them.

I would like to thank and congratulate the author and the translator for their work on this evocative novel.

Author: Srijato
Original Text: Bengali
Translator: Maharghya Chakraborty
Publisher: Penguin Random House India

Source: Akita Gupta PR & Communications/Review Copy from the Publisher

Tragedy of a Petrostate, Catharsis of a Daughter

We know culture shapes our personality and beliefs – we may accept, it may orient or disorient us in certain ways. But how does politics, political system and regime shape our lives, disrupt it, and intrude on our personal relations? Most of us feel victimized by our governments – we hate it, bear it, and change it for good or worst outcomes. But imagine, when you can no longer separate your personal and family life from the fate of your country; when your nation's political and economic scene no longer holds assurance to your dreams, but rather seeps into your relation, unsettles it and makes your everyday life difficult. Paula Ramón's memoir Motherland brings us face to face with the tragedies born out of a political system, and fueled by its crisis. 

Venezuela, its political and economic turmoil, has formed the background for this memoir. However, this story is relatable to many of us in Latin America, South Asia and Africa, and elsewhere, where we have experienced how politics and people in power shaped our childhood memories, our lives now and the kind of future that our country holds for us. Venezuelan politics and economics have been ruthless to Paula, her family, her relations and many like her. But this memoir is not an acceptance of defeat of an individual against her country. This is a memoir has been written as a relief and to heal her memories associated with her mother, her family and her country Venezuela.

Paula takes us to 1970s Maracaibo, when the Venezuelan oil reserves promised prosperity to everyone. Intertwining her family roots, beliefs and political changes in the country, Paula provides enough evidence on how a once prosperous country with even richer history slowly met its downfall. Old political leadership plunged the economy into crisis, while those promising a new future, didn't prove as good their nationalist virtues and propagandas. Result – repressed citizens, citizens dazzled with nationalism, few privileged and many underprivileged citizens, and citizens feeling rootless in their own nation.  

Born in 1981, Paula first became a witness and then a victim of the changes in Venezuelan political system; she could never cast off the shadow of the one or other form of political crisis from her personal life, as if her generation were born to accept it – crisis, one that never resolves. Paula recounts how her parents managed to at least provide their children a secured life amidst the deteriorating economic difficulties in the country. But, things were to change soon. Chavismo and Bolivarian Revolution would soon change the color of the nation – supporters saw it in rainbow colors of their savior and his power. However, the social color described by Paula is rather dark, and so became her personal life, torn between a country that no longer holds any promise to her future, and her love and responsibility towards her mother, who didn't want to leave her house.

Just like Paula has been open about her family relations and its inner chemistry, she hasn't failed to give her views and take stand on her fierce and satirical criticism of Chavez led Bolivarian revolution and its futile promises.  There may be difference of opinions, but the impact on the social, economic and personal sphere, breaking families and causing large migration from the country cannot be ignored. Those of us, who know little about social consequences of political development in Venezuela before and after Chavez, this memoir will be an eye-opener, as if we lived through it, experienced it firsthand – to see through deteriorating democracy giving rise to populists and saviors, who turn into dictators.

'True, Chávez was extremely popular, but winning elections with the help of a biased National Electoral Council, discretional use of state resources, and the Congress and Supreme Court of Justice in his pocket was not exactly democratic.'

Here we find the portrayals of Paula's father and mother, who found each other and settled in Maracaibo, trying their luck to establish a prosperous life, driven in part by dreams and aspirations, and in part believing richness and future of the land. We see their lives marked by political upheavals, events, and beliefs, as if they were surrounded and possessed by a political drama, which imposed its rules on them, on their happy life. Like Paula has written in the book, she was raised just like a postwar child, driven by beliefs of her parents who had values – gift of their memories and experience of poverty and war.

When the economy of Venezuela took a tumultuous path, its oil income and economy didn't make for the public debt and deficits. While the government was hitting hard to show a polished image of a successful nation, economic indicators and the market were all in havoc. And while people's belief guided and blinded by the authority, state media and power left the country divided and led to fractured and weak voices and backups, corruption, depreciation, violence, inflation, food and power shortage led to everyday struggle to manage resources. Paula's family, like many other families were caught in this trap. What we see is a lonely mother sinking in this crisis, and a daughter trying to save her from the shore.

'Political Instability frightened my parents, and economic instability suffocated them.'

Further, what we see is politicians driving the country through patriotic sentiments and nationalist agendas, without able to manage its resources nor able to improve its declining economy. Like said earlier, people were divided, people had grown frustrated with politicians and had longed and saved their enthusiasm for saviors. With the rise of Hugo Chávez (with a military background), we see how he used power and support to orient the whole judicial and electoral system to his favor to further his power and tighten the regime (which is what his successor Nicolás Maduro is doing now), crumbling the old political parties, and thus creating a "political polarization." Amidst all this, Paula and her family, show sign of disintegration, especially after the death of her father.

'Every personal or professional moment of my life during that time was in some way marked by the political crisis.'

Demonstrations were everyday part of their social life when Paula tried to make a living as a journalist in Caracas, and country was torn between pro-Chávez and oppositions, state hated the private media and even toppled many of them. Meanwhile, Chávez took control over PDVSA, the national oil company, a foundation to Venezuelan's economy, killed protests, defied the oppositions, used state resources to fund popular social reform programs and cashed in votes that helped him stay in power, through "illegal maneuverings." Paula was trying to find stability, tried to be independent, and support herself and her mother. Chávez was taking control over the private businesses and was ruining them, nationalizing revenue entities but failing to curb the inflation. Market demand was barely fulfilled by the supply, leading to increased price of commodities and formation of parallel black market. This memoir shows unfolding of power-politics, unveils the layer after layer of a state in ruins and a failing fate of a family reflecting that of the country. 

'When you live far from home, the nostalgia comes and goes. You romanticize memories and wallow in the absences. You survive on stories, and the adage that the past is always better becomes truer by the day. Reminiscing becomes your favorite pastime. I insisted on reliving things that were dead.'

Paula's complex relationship with her brothers and mother, shaped because of individual personalities and choices but also because of country's crisis, led them each on their separate ways. Paula was torn between her own personal life, her career and her responsibility towards her mother who had been left alone. Paula had to live outside Venezuela for one or another reason. Her mother, who once took charge of the family after the death of her husband, and who tried to keep her honor until the end of her life, was sick and lonely. Paula took the responsibility of making her mother's life easier at home, taking care of both her basic needs and emotional needs. We see, how Paula's realizations, that further strengthened her love for her mother though she had a complex relation with her, she tried her best to understand her, provide care for her – as if her mother had become her only link to the country.

'It became obvious that we didn't have what it took to survive the collapse of Venezuela as a family.'

Failing system of basic necessities to the citizens, banking crisis, plundered national currency, surging poverty due to skyrocketed inflation, massive corruption, high homicide rate, high migration rate, dissent voices silenced by oppression, all this were leading Venezuela to a path to becoming a failed petrostate. Over the years people's saviors have turned into someone they hate, for making their lives so miserable, uncomfortable and disgusting, with their authoritarian dictatorship. Despite thousands of demonstrations, Venezuelan democracy and its people continue to suffer. This is not a narrative of some regional powers – Paula's memoir is as true as a daughter can be to her motherly love.

This memoir may be burned, banned, or dismissed by cynics and those in Venezuelan power, but its truth will stand out, it has stood out – the cause and cost of humanitarian crisis in Venezuela. Paula's memoir is against all those in power! Paula's memoir is for all the daughters and mothers! The book is not only about motherland, but also about motherhood, love, sacrifice, responsibility and resilience.

A must read book!

Author: Paula Ramón
Original Text: Portuguese
Translator: Julia Sanches and Jennifer Shyue
Publisher: Amazon Publishing

Source: Over The River Public Relations/Review Copy from the Publisher

Pilgrimage of the Green Solace

The novel Dattapaharam starts with a newspaper clipping that reports about a mysterious man sighted by a team of researchers in the depths of a forest – Pullothikkadu, a place 20 kms from the valley – and who vanished again. This incident brings back five friends together on a quest to find their friend Freddie Robert, who might be the one seen by the researchers.

In this tale, witnessed, lived and told by different narrators, we come across six friends, who in their days spent as engineering students formed a close-knit group and called themselves Pandavas – the legendary five brothers from the epic Mahabharat who along with their wife Panchali (Draupadi) were sent on an exile, and who spent their long years hiding, mostly in forests (Vanabasa). Like Pandavas and Panchali, the group – Freddie Robert, Sudhakaran, Mahesh, Muhammad Rafi, Sahadev Iyer and Meera – would make nature visits, particularly led by Freddie Robert, to the forests, and who in his later days of engineering became elusive, wayward and obsessed with his inclination for nature and forest.

Freddie Robert, once a leader of hostel ragging, later the most revered and loved one among his group for his generosity and daring, and who would let his comrades experience the otherwise unthinkable, transforms to become more introverted and enigmatic in his later days before his mysterious disappearance in a forest. The other members of the group do not find it easy to understand Freddie and his purpose – to be close to nature and be in unison with it. As the friends make a journey once again to the forest where they lost their friend, the tale unfolds or rather unravels into threads connecting to more subtle but sensible thought-provoking forces driving Freddie to disappearance. The author successfully lets the story drive in a mysterious train, revealing secrets at every new station, told through multiple narrators – the mystery keeps you hooked, and the sensibility of connectedness to nature slowly turns from an idea to a necessity for the characters. This book has a special calling! Those not finding the roots of nature simply might be lost in the pages, which has also been suggested in the preface by the author.

The members of the group narrate their individual relation with and impression of Freddie during their college days, all of which contribute to characterize the Pandava gang but also illuminate the idiosyncrasies of the members, which transmits a certain mood to the whole story. We find sufficient humor, in all its naturalness of youthful days, but memories of a horrific experience, especially in the description of the hostel ragging, unsettle us.

The vision of life envisioned by the author, especially through Freddie Robert, Meera and Sudhakaran forms a dreamy ambience, which is earthy, raw, and palpable but one which is realized transforming from something ethereal to something urgent and close, only when transformation happens within oneself too.

The engineering background of the author makes him very attentive to technical details, and he puts them in sharp and accurate ways to his advantage, lifting science with natural spirit and joy, as metaphors and for swinging to the edge of the universe.

As the friends make the arduous journey into the deep forest, hoping to find their purpose, they rather are excited to find themselves ruminating over the cause of the disappearance. Enchanted by the beauty of the forest afresh, discovering new symbols and connections, as if a clue to the secrets of nature, their hope to find Freddie is bolstered. They try to understand the forest, its comfort, offerings and dangers, so that those experiences form a path to Freddie, wherever he is. They discover that the path to disappearance was not so simple, nor the life Freddie chose, glimpses of which were written in his diary.

As the urgency burdens the friends, to find Freddie or to escape, events unfold putting them into a dilemma, and delusions and placing them face to face with a secret they held for so long. Freddie turns from a man to an idea that is contagious. Who'll they find in the forest? Or, who will they lose? Will they return the same, or will they return at all?

The sensibility in the novel, which I wrote about earlier, has its fundamentals in the affinity for nature, not limited to being an observer, but to be part of it, without any superficiality. If we know about the spirituality, and the duo – body and soul, the force driving the characters adds in Nature, to become a trio of existence. The novel plays on the ideas like journey of instincts, going back to nature, merging with its core and essence, nature as mother, nature as a God, and spiritual awakening oriented to nature than to anything else. Imagine a mysterious bird taking you to the depths of the forest to show some secrets, and imagine a man entering a forest, and a forest entering into a man. The novel is a journey of awareness that takes us to the roots of our existence – which can find solace only in nature, unraveling our deep-seated desire to escape, to be free, to return to the origin, to return back to nature and to primeval human ways. Dattapaharam is gripping, natural, sharp, meditative, wildly imaginative and one of the thoughtful novels written in a mood of mystery. Perhaps, I can name it a "Nature Mystery" novel!

Author: V.J. James
Original Text: Malayalam
Translator: Ministhy S.
Publisher: Penguin Random House India https://penguin.co.in/book/dattapaharam/

Source: Review Copy from the Publisher

The Deadly Playground

Vishwas Patil is one of the greatest novelists of India writing in Marathi, and his novels are well-researched and rich in their depth and breadth – in scope, characters and understanding. Dudiya is not so lengthy as Patil's other epic works like Panipat, Mahanayak and later works, but in a mere two hundred and few pages, in this political novel the author takes us to the depths of Dandakaranya and Abujmarh forests, among the tribals of Naxal-afflicted region, particularly of Chhattisgarh state, and well into the center of Naxalite–Maoist insurgency, and the armed struggle, tension, fear and death lurking in those lands. 

The narrator Dilip Pawar is a civil servant officer and recounts his days after being sent as an Election Observer to one of the Naxal-afflicted districts of Chhattisgarh (Previously part of Madhya Pradesh) State. From the outset, despite being deployed to a region known for its notoriety, his interest to inquire and understand about the Naxals keeps him motivated even after hearing and reading about the recent frightening killings. His seventy-six days stay in the region brings him face to face with the facts, the historical development of the Naxal crisis, the ongoing struggle, the atrocities committed by the state and Naxal forces upon the civilians, the people directly involved in handling the crisis and those who are victims of it in one or another way. The narrator has become a window for the author and readers to try to understand the Naxal problem, serving as a perfect vantage point, and so is the narrative development in the novel – we are surrounded by questions, we hear the witnesses and find ourselves as if in the middle of a burning land, just like the subtitle of the novel suggests.

There couldn't have been any other perfect character than Dudiya, a tribal girl, who would recount her journey and struggle, to the narrator and therefore to us, from an ordinary tribal village birth to being a Naxal insurgent and again back to being a civilian after the surrender. Her dissatisfaction, defiance, disgust and feeling of being in the wrong marks her sharp turns in life and the emotional hollow she felt throughout.

Once inside the Naxal world, there was no getting out of it. As a tribal girl, I would send this one fervent question above, 'God, is there any release for us hill people from the twin assault of the Naxals on the one side and the police on the other?'

We get an up-close glimpse into the life of Naxal-Maoist leaders and senior officials of the state, and their rituals too. It is nothing less than being on a battlefield. The author has positioned the narrator in the fine line as an observer between the state forces and the Naxal insurgents. He is looking at the crisis, at its roots and not merely at the individuals fighting from each end. Impartial to the view of the crisis, this story has given a humane as well as critical perspective on the problem. This is also an attempt to unmask all brave men, all ruthless men, and all terror-stricken men and to show the ordinary face of the people behind all those perceptions of the news coverage and terror of killing.

This novel had to be written – and it has been written. You cannot witness a state terror, an insurgency, and not know its reasons, and not write about it. Though it hasn't many plot twists, the references to the real-life events that happened and the facts that still hold true give the novel a complex and complete political shine – which is alarming, thought-provoking and dreadful. We feel a heat emanating out of the novel, a heat not of warmth but of disorder, panic, death, fear, struggle, harming those with arms and those without – the tribals. It transports the readers to the dense forests and makes them witness the tension, fear of death and violence hanging in the region – all behind the lush and beautiful hills and forests – and all seen through sad and panic-stricken eyes.

Ruthless killing and butchering of people, disintegration of the families, personal loss, migration of the tribal youths, the suppressed and compromised development of the region, real events of Naxal-State forces confrontation killing political leaders, IAS and IPS officers, Naxalites and armies – events dotted with bloodbath and scars lefts behind – this is the story, not of peace but of violence and disruption. Still, the character Dudiya makes us hopeful, that people will indeed return, will understand, and thus settle for peace, to come to an understanding. Dudiya is a symbol of peace and resilience.

The story weaves not only the timeline of Naxal-insurgency development but everyone who is at the frontline of the State Vs Naxal warfare. We start with the exploitation and abuse of the tribals and local resources by the government authorities, the birth of hate and anger amongst the tribals which was never appeased or addressed as a major disconcertion. Then we witness the poverty and provocation that made the tribals of the region vulnerable to the promises made by the Maoists/Naxals and who then saw them as saviors protecting their rights, defending them against the state laws and terrors. But, before anybody could understand the maelstrom brewing behind, it grew out of hand and tribals/Adivasi people found themselves amidst the center of two arms-wielding powers – Naxals and the government forces.

Against the background of political upheavals and transformations, Naxalism seems to have become a need for everybody in a number of states in the country. The Naxals needs jungles for performing their tasks; while state administrations need thousands of millions of rupees annually as Central grants under the head of combating Naxalism to pull themselves out of financial crises. If Naxals were suddenly to disappear, at whose door would these state government go with their empty begging bowls? This is the vicious circle that has formed everywhere.

Election happening in the backdrop of fear of gunfire, death traps of landmines and pressure bombs, violent confrontations in the depths of the forests and far-flung hills has also set a stage for a political drama, which the author has handled very well – without exaggeration and without losing the authenticity. But as said earlier, this is a humanist side of the story that is often lost in pure historical and political narratives, and the novel has fulfilled that gap.

Dudiya, in Nadeem Khan's excellent rendering, serves as an authentic contemporary account of the Naxal-Maoist Crisis in India not only for Indian readers but also for foreign readers who haven't yet heard about and have no clue about the existence of the State-Naxal struggle. I think the research put in this novel gives us a rare opportunity to listen, think and understand the inside and intrigues of both camps. And, just like the narrator who is unsettled after all his experience and asks questions, and doubts the intentions, we too are left with such questions. Dudiya is like looking at a bullet wound which provokes a movement in your thought – that lives can be saved.

Author: Vishwas Patil
Original Text: Marathi
Translator: Nadeem Khan
Publisher: Niyogi Books http://niyogibooksindia.com/

Source: Review Copy from the Publisher

 

The Lines that...

Krisztina Tóth's stories are rich in their explosions of moments, bursting of silences, and an ambience drifting over fate, as if the author can notice even a flick of air. The interconnected lives, intersected flashes of memories, the difficulty of realizing a personal dilemma and individuality, and a transitioning sense of life and the boundaries that are not visible yet keep crossing over your life – the structure of this collection gathers storms and waves. The author mostly traverses back to the character's childhood memories and taps where there is heat, a discovery, a difficulty and therefore the transition, as if it was necessary to cross those rivers of crisis. Following the trajectories of the narrators, we find that, each time the author fabricates an end, we arrive not at similar points but at different zones of realization, trying to figure out the conundrum. The author has a fascination with breaking down the time and its elements, finding a rhythm in each of those.

As I watch the various shades of brown and grey, and the thick smoke swirling up from somewhere, I wonder where the boundary is, that borderline between life and non-life, between life and death, whether there is some kind of definite borderland at all. I wonder about the living and the dead, about how over the years I have learnt nothing, I've merely grown older,…

That's it, the story continues, because he knew that stories never end, they only break off and lie low, like latent diseases, and then resurface and continue to spread, resulting in stabs of pain elsewhere, only for that pain to be passed down from generation to generation.

The first story, Vacant People (Borderline) is composed in a personal grey zone. A woman in her thirties narrates a drifting experience and understanding of life and death, the living and the dead, the shiver and the warmth. In a seamless, almost plotless story, the impression is rather of an immersion into the foggy realities of life. You'll know when you read it. In The Pencil Case (Guidelines), there are two contrasting episodes from the narrator's school days, when the dissociation of the name and the self, of an observant and the participant, the futility of good and evil dawns upon the narrator as a revelation as if finding a clockwork of human expectations, humility and stillness. In Outline Map (Lifeline), as if a monologue of a sick boy, who might be perhaps on the verge of treatment (or dying?) and who has a short lifeline on his left palm, finds himself as if in a lost world, in almost a fever dream narrative. In The Fence (Blood Line), what begins as a recollection of an event when the pet dog got stuck and bloodied in a cat-flap, evolves as if the development of a negative of a scar left by the Hungarian Uprising of 1956 on the narrator's father's body.

The scenic details bring the past to life, while the momentary stops of reflection radiate philosophical exploration as if experienced by a younger self of one's own – by one who's reflecting. It is as if characters are able to switch off the present and take their soul out of their bodies and place it elsewhere for a while. There are characters breaking sensible boundaries and finding their way into a maze in their minds and thoughts. These stories are at times comical as well, in the dramatic turn of events.

In stories where Hungarian political history finds its trail, the strength of the prose has come even sharper, as if we are in the middle of a developing novel. The transition from lightheartedness to dark horrors and realizations in these stories are exciting if read as a technique, but they are also subtleties that represent the complexity of characters and therefore of human lives. The absurd becoming the real, the solitude turning into a sad beauty, and chaotic life becoming a norm - we find the grey ambience turning into a heart of survival. The portrayals of old women are so authentic and vivid, we'll immediately recognize them as someone from around us, breathing in the text – the clear detailing are as such you want to embrace them.

In Ant Map (Line of Passage), the narrator, an unnamed and uncared-for young little girl is left with a scrap collector grandmother who'd draw the trajectory of ant's movement on a map. In The Castle (Frontline), the narrator recalls her summer camp to a castle as a teenager, her fondness and the changes that crisscrossed and marked through those times and who lived then. A hyper-imaginative narrator's routine and comfort are disrupted after an American relative comes to stay at her home, and her teacher crosses a boundary in the Tepid Milk (Barcode Lines). Black Snowman (Grid Lines) transports us to the hubbub of the social estate housing boom in Hungary and the societal drama revolving around it, as witnessed and lived by our narrator. Cold Floor (Baseline) is in fact like one of the Japanese classic stories. While one of the most dramatic and dynamic stories is Take Five (Fault Line). As we progress in the collection, we find ourselves blending the experience of characters and almost believe that these in fact all are living in the same generation (perhaps the fall of the communist era in Hungary), through the same personal crisis, experiencing similar individual victories and losses. And the way, the first and the last story resonate, we exhale a sigh of relief, that the circle has been completed, that the characters have reached their destination, and that all living and dead have finally found peace.

One way or another, even if it sometimes come apart at the seams, the world is a web of often opaque laws, or of interconnections glistening like gossamer in the pale light of dawn, with the ends of each strand tied to a  different corner of time.

We tend to believe that these stories are particularly life and times of a young Hungarian girl, now remembered from a distant future. Dreams, hopes, musings and revelations of a young girl (there are male narrators too) – these stories give a sense of a journey of self-discovery through experience and observations, from close and far, from associations and dissociations with one's self. Stories also carry political, societal and pop-cultural aspirations of the time, and the evolution of our narrator's experience to live through those. In one of the stories, as if it is the final act in the catharsis of love – a woman burying love notes in Japan – we find elements of love, tragedy and renunciation. At times, we find the reclusive cover of simple imaginations that gives an escape to the narrators when in fact they are surrounded by clouds of existential crisis and happiness – losing self in the memories, and in the stillness. Transitioning identity and memory has been one of the leitmotifs of these thematic stories. The fleeting details of the surroundings, heat and even air and smell are crisp and passionately created as if they too are accomplices of the tipping points/lines that alienate you from being and the surroundings.

The borderline between life and death, guidelines between presence and absence, scar separating the trauma and the terror, line marking the coming of age, gridlines mapping the history and subtle horror, mirror lines of personal crisis, the line of betrayal and loss, line throbbing with memories, line separating sad reality and comforting fantasy, line between now and then – the commonalities of these stories lie in the separation that defines us in unique ways, at unique ages. Barcode is a visionary exploration of personal and universal experience. Taken together, these stories represent a grand realization and a sensitive candor to the lines that make, break, define and seek and soar redemption for life. These are fresh and bright prose, in line with the glory of Hungarian literature!

Author: Krisztina Tóth
Original Text: Hungarian
Translator: Peter Sherwood
Publisher: Jantar Publishing https://www.jantarpublishing.com/

Source: Review Copy from the Publisher