Synopses & Reviews
Like Dave Eggers's and Alexander Masters's , this is a tour de force of narrative reportage. Mohammed Ashraf studied biology, became a butcher, a tailor, and an electrician's apprentice; now he is a homeless day laborer in the heart of old Delhi. How did he end up this way? In an astonishing debut, Aman Sethi brings him and his indelible group of friends to life through their adventures and misfortunes in the Old Delhi Railway Station, the harrowing wards of a tuberculosis hospital, an illegal bar made of cardboard and plywood, and into Beggars Court and back onto the streets. In a time of global economic strain, this is an unforgettable evocation of persistence in the face of poverty in one of the world's largest cities. Sethi recounts Ashraf's surprising life story with wit, candor, and verve, and becomes a moving story of the many ways a man can be free.
Review
"Important [and] powerful." San Francisco Chronicle
Review
"As raw and disturbing as it is wryly humorous and poignant." Christian Science Monitor
Review
" makes no promise of a happy ending. Perhaps no book about contemporary Indian society can. But it delivers more. It takes readers on a journey they might otherwise not go on. And that the destination is neither secret nor hidden shows that sometimes what matters isn't what's beyond our reach. It's what's before our eyes." Sonia Faleiro
Review
"Funny, poignant, and deeply moving, is an extraordinary vignette into an extraordinary life." New York Times Book Review
Review
"Starred Review. A moving and irrepressible work of narrative reporting." Siddhartha Mukherjee, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Emperor of All Maladies
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"A brilliant capturing of the language and bloodstream of a city. Aman Sethi has made a book that's remarkable in its voice and evocation." Publishers Weekly
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"Stunning. It reminds me of that Victorian masterpiece of investigative journalism, Henry Mayhew's and Aman Sethi 'gets' modern India better than any other journalist I know. Not only is he a remarkable reporter and storyteller, but he possesses a novelist's ear for language, sense of the absurd, and perfect pitch. I'm bowled over, totally." Michael Ondaatje, author of The English Patient
Review
" is a beautiful work of journalism, sympathetic and graceful. The author follows, and progressively befriends, a homeless day laborer in Delhi. What starts as classic ethnography becomes a gripping story, and ends as a homage to a lost friend." Sylvia Nasar, author of A Beautiful Mind and Grand Pursuit: The Story of Economic Genius
Review
"With , Aman Sethi comes to the forefront of an extraordinary new generation of Indian nonfiction writers. His compassion and humor is matched by a fierce determination to tell the stories of ordinary Indians, too often forgotten in the scramble for the spoils of the economic boom." Esther Duflo, author of Poor Economics and MacArthur Fellow
Synopsis
"A deeply moving, funny, and brilliantly written account from one of India's most original new voices."--Katherine Boo
Synopsis
Mohammed Ashraf studied biology, became a butcher, a tailor, and an electrician s apprentice; now he is a homeless day laborer in the heart of old Delhi. How did he end up this way? In an astonishing debut, Aman Sethi brings him and his indelible group of friends to life through their adventures and misfortunes in the Old Delhi Railway Station, the harrowing wards of a tuberculosis hospital, an illegal bar made of cardboard and plywood, and into Beggars Court and back onto the streets In a time of global economic strain, this is an unforgettable evocation of persistence in the face of poverty in one of the world s largest cities. Sethi recounts Ashraf s surprising life story with wit, candor, and verve, andA Free Man becomes a moving story of the many ways a man can be free. "
Synopsis
Like Dave Eggers's Zeitoun and Alexander Masters's Stuart, this is a tour de force of narrative reportage.
Mohammed Ashraf studied biology, became a butcher, a tailor, and an electrician's apprentice; now he is a homeless day laborer in the heart of old Delhi. How did he end up this way? In an astonishing debut, Aman Sethi brings him and his indelible group of friends to life through their adventures and misfortunes in the Old Delhi Railway Station, the harrowing wards of a tuberculosis hospital, an illegal bar made of cardboard and plywood, and into Beggars Court and back onto the streets.
In a time of global economic strain, this is an unforgettable evocation of persistence in the face of poverty in one of the world's largest cities. Sethi recounts Ashraf's surprising life story with wit, candor, and verve, and A Free Man becomes a moving story of the many ways a man can be free.
About the Author
Aman Sethi was born in Bombay in 1983 and attended the Columbia School of Journalism. He is a correspondent for The Hindu and the recipient of an International Committee of the Red Cross award for his reportage.