The Times of Siege - Softcover

Harihran, Githa

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0143032429 ISBN 13: 9780143032427

Publisher: Penguin Books India, 2004

Synopsis

New Delhi, in the year 2000. Staff meetings, lesson modules, a half-hearted little affair with a colleague - this is the blah but comfortable life of Shiv Murthy, a history teacher in an open university.

About this title

Review

"A heady mix of myth, modern mores, politics and lust. . . . Heartbreakingly funny, moving and as relevant as today's headlines."--"The Washington Post
""Githa Hariharan's fiction is wonderful--full of subtleties and humor and tenderness." -Michael Ondaatje
"If this premise seems to be drawn from the headlines of modern, B.J.P.-dominated India, Hariharan amplifies the themes of courage, dissent, and responsibility in her protagonist's private life. . . . The result is an engaging portrait of the mild-mannered professor." -"The New Yorker
" "Appealing. . . . By turns bewildered, titillated, embarrassed, and frightened out of his wits, Shiv makes a sweetly sympathetic hero for a story that is part comedy of manners, part comedy of ideas."--"The Boston Globe
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"A modern fable . . . beautifully told in a spare style that is as modern as its subject."--"The Baltimore Sun
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"A witty, insightful novel . . . Hariharan tells the tale with a realistic grasp of how people interact and a highly evolved sense of the absurd." --"The Seattle Times
""Intelligent . . . [Hariharan's] deceptively simple prose belies the artistry of her phrasings and she writes with an infectious concern for her characters." --"San Francisco Chronicle
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"Admirable. [Its] themes . . . extend beyond India or its current situation. They are universal. Ms. Hariharan has written a fine novel that leaves much to ponder long after its conclusion." -"The Richmond-Times Dispatch
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"[Hariharan is] an outstanding writer." -J. M. Coetzee
"Eloquently written . . . a quick read, and fascinating to any outsider. A modern book, it reads like a classic with gorgeous prose and intense conflict." -"The Oklahoma Gazette"
"Imaginative . . . entertaining . . . [The] strength of this highly readable tale is that it is a delicate blend of humor, tenderness and insight." --"Tucson Citizen
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"Wonderful . . . Ms. Hariharan executes the vastness of India's hi

About the Author

Githa Hariharan was educated in Bombay, Manila, and the United States. She has worked in public television in the United States and as an editor in India. Her first novel, The Thousand Faces of Night," " won the Commonwealth Writers Prize. Since then, she has published a collection of short stories, The Art of Dying, and two novels, The Ghosts of Vasu Master and When Dreams Travel."" She lives in New Delhi.

About this edition

• Publisher: Penguin Books India
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 0143032429
• ISBN 13: 9780143032427
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 224