Three Novels: 'A Strange and Sublime Address', ' Afternoon Raag', 'Freedom Song' - Softcover

Chaudhuri, Amit

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0330482750 ISBN 13: 9780330482752

Publisher: Picador, 2001

Synopsis

A Strange and Sublime Address

‘Funny, delicate, sensuous, evocative . . . made me laugh aloud. The best portrait of India today I’ve read’ Margaret Drabble

‘This evocation of the routine, quotidian magic of normality strikes me as an extraordinary thing to have brought off . . . mesmerizing’ John Lanchester, Vogue

Afternoon Raag

‘Enchanting, studded with moments of beauty more arresting that anything to be found in a hundred busier and more excitable narratives . . . Chaudhuri has proven that he can write better than just about anyone of his generation’ Jonathan Coe, London Review of Books

‘This immensely subtle novel both estranges and gently strokes the surface of English and Indian life. I know of nothing in English fiction that resembles it’ Tom Paulin

Freedom Song

‘An immensely gifted writer . . . his novels are crammed with breathtaking sentences, sharp characterizations, comic set pieces and melancholy grace notes’ New York Times Book Review

‘Chaudhuri writes about India like no one else . . . Exquisite and supremely haunting, a work of contemporary fiction by a world-class writer’ Robert McCrum, Observer

About this title

Product Description:

Three stories that detail everyday urban life with sensitivity and humour, whether it's America, England or an Indian city. Each story, individually, has won awards.

Review:

Amit Chaudhuri's Freedom Song is a masterpiece of the telling detail--in one paragraph he accomplishes what might take other writers entire volumes. Consider, for example, this description of family life:

Monday morning came like a fever. Chhotomama would be at the dining-table, eating a rapid meal of dal, fish, and rice, trying to avoid chewing as much of it as possible before he rushed to work. Then he would rush upstairs where a pair of polished black shoes would be waiting for him like a long-promised gift. He would spend five minutes persuading his feet to enter the shoes, or the shoes to swallow his feet. Over and over again he would shout "I'm late!" in the classic manner of the man crying "Fire!" or "Timber!" or "Eureka!" while Saraswati and Mamima scuttled around him like frightened birds.

The plot is slight and almost inconsequential--a young boy spends his summer with relatives in Calcutta--and consists mainly of a series of episodes strung together. But the characters are so lovingly limned and the places so intimately described that not even a one-way ticket to India could rival Chaudhuri's rendering. What's really important here are the character's memories of his music teacher back in Bombay; his mother's morning rituals; his father clipping his fingernails onto an old copy of the Times of India. The plot takes a back seat to the delicate workings of familial relationships as two clans attempt to marry off a "problem" relative.

What makes this novel so satisfying is the fact that the author's remarkable sensibility is more than matched by his literary skilfulness. For readers in love with language, Freedom Song is the answer to a prayer. --Alix Wilber

About this edition

• Publisher: Picador
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 0330482750
• ISBN 13: 9780330482752
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 464