Capital: A Portrait of Twenty-First Century Delhi - Hardcover

Rana Dasgupta

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 085786002X ISBN 13: 9780857860026

Publisher: Canongate Books Ltd, 2014

Synopsis

'A terrific portrait of Delhi right now' SALMAN RUSHDIE

'An astonishing tour de force by a major writer at the peak of his powers' WILLIAM DALRYMPLE

SHORTLISTED FOR THE ORWELL PRIZE 2015

At the turn of the twenty-first century, acclaimed novelist Rana Dasgupta arrived in Delhi with a single suitcase. He had no intention of staying for long. But the city beguiled him - he 'fell in love and in hate with it' - and fourteen years later, Delhi is still his home.

Fourteen years of break-neck change. The boom following the opening up of India's economy plunged Delhi into a tumult of destruction and creation: slums and markets were ripped down, and shopping malls and apartment blocks erupted from the ruins. But the transformation was stern, abrupt and fantastically unequal, and it gave rise to strange and bewildering feelings. The city brimmed with ambition and rage. Bizarre crimes stole the headlines.

In Capital, we see Delhi through the eyes of its people. With the lyricism and empathy of a novelist, Dasgupta takes us through a series of encounters - with billionaires and bureaucrats, drug dealers and metal traders, slum dwellers and psychoanalysts - which plunge us into Delhi's intoxicating, and sometimes terrifying, story of capitalist transformation. Interweaving over a century of history with his personal journey, he presents us with the first literary portrait of one of the twenty-first century's fastest-growing megalopolises - a dark and uncanny portrait that gives us insights, too, as to the nature of our own - everyone's - shared, global future.

About this title

Review:

"A beautifully written portrait of a corrupt, violent and traumatised city growing so fast it is almost unrecognisable to its own inhabitants. An astonishing tour de force by a major writer at the peak of his powers" (WILLIAM DALRYMPLE)

"A terrific portrait of Delhi right now and hits a lot of nails on the head" (SALMAN RUSHDIE Vogue)

"Lyrical and haunting" (International New York Times)

"Achingly beautiful . . . and cleverly tangential" (Financial Times)

"Intense, lyrical, erudite and powerful" (Observer)

"Important . . . His lyrical encounters with a wide range of modern Delhiites reveal a novelist's ear and are beautifully sketched" (Telegraph)

"Dasgupta peels back the layers of denial with insight, humanity and beautiful writing. He exposes festering wounds buts succeeds in fascinating rather than repelling" (The Times)

"A remarkable and exhaustive account" (Independent)

"Personal, original and vivid" (New Internationalist)

"A remarkably elegant work whose rich style and sweep often brings to mind V S Naipaul's A Million Mutinies Now" (New Statesman)

Book Description:

The transformation of Delhi into a twenty-first century metropolis is an intoxicating, at times terrifying story - and it has repercussions not only for India, but for everybody's future.

About this edition

• Publisher: Canongate Books Ltd
• Publication date: 2014
• ISBN 10: 085786002X
• ISBN 13: 9780857860026
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 512