Synopses & Reviews
Finalist for the 2016 National Book Award
When brothers Tushar and Nakul Khurana, two Delhi schoolboys, pick up their family s television set at a repair shop with their friend Mansoor Ahmed one day in 1996, disaster strikes without warning. A bomb one of the many small bombs that go off seemingly unheralded across the world detonates in the Delhi marketplace, instantly claiming the lives of the Khurana boys, to the devastation of their parents. Mansoor survives, bearing the physical and psychological effects of the bomb. After a brief stint at university in America, Mansoor returns to Delhi, where his life becomes entangled with the mysterious and charismatic Ayub, a fearless young activist whose own allegiances and beliefs are more malleable than Mansoor could imagine. Woven among the story of the Khuranas and the Ahmeds is the gripping tale of Shockie, a Kashmiri bomb maker who has forsaken his own life for the independence of his homeland.
Karan Mahajan writes brilliantly about the effects of terrorism on victims and perpetrators, proving himself to be one of the most provocative and dynamic novelists of his generation.
Review
"Mahajan’s talent is in conveying the sense that the world is gray, not black-and-white, and he accomplishes this by weaving together the evolving motives and passions of his characters so intricately that in the end we see each as culpable, and human. In his searing story, lives (and life itself) are subjected to close inspection and at times discombobulation." Publishers Weekly
Review
"Just like its beautifully designed cover, The Association of Small Bombs is simple in premise, but it explodes in bursts of brilliant color. Karan Mahajan’s masterful novel explores the aftermath of a small bomb detonation in the ’90s in Delhi, and the many people whose lives it alters — from the families of victims to the bombers themselves. With great empathy and no lack of humor, Mahajan shows the multitudinous sides to the kind of story that we usually read a line or two about in a newspaper, or hear short mention of on television." Maris Kreizman, Esquire’s "Best Books of 2016"
Review
"[A] beautifully written novel....Ambitious....Carries us deep into the human side of a tragedy." The Washington Post
Review
"[Mahajan’s] eagerness to go at the bomb from every angle suggests a voracious approach to fiction-making, a daring imaginative promiscuity that moves beyond the scope of his first, very good novel, Family Planning." The New Yorker
Review
"Brilliant....Mr. Mahajan’s writing is acrid and bracing, tightly packed with dissonant imagery....The Association of Small Bombs is not the first novel about the aftermath of a terrorist attack, but it is the finest I’ve read at capturing the seduction and force of the murderous, annihilating illogic that increasingly consumes the globe." Sam Sacks, The Wall Street Journal
Review
"Wonderful....Smart, devastating, unpredictable, and enviably adept in its handling of tragedy and its fallout. If you enjoy novels that happily disrupt traditional narratives — about grief, death, violence, politics — I suggest you go out and buy this one. Post haste." Fiona Maazel, The New York Times Book Review
About the Author
Karan Mahajan was born in 1984 and grew up in New Delhi, India. His first novel, Family Planning, was a finalist for the Dylan Thomas Prize and published in nine countries. His writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, NPR’s All Things Considered, The New Yorker online, The Believer, The Paris Review Daily, and Bookforum. A graduate of Stanford University and the Michener Center for Writers, he lives in Austin, Texas.