Synopses & Reviews
As night falls in Delhi, a mother spins tales from her past for her sleeping daughter. Now grown up, her child is a puzzle with a million pieces, whom she hopes, through her words and her love, to somehow make whole again.
Meanwhile, a young man rides the last train from Rajiv Chowk Station and dreams of murder.
In another corner of the city, a newborn wrapped in a blood-red towel lies on the steps of an orphanage as his mother walks away.
There are twenty million bodies in this city, but the stories of this woman, man, and child—of a secret love that blossoms in the shadows of grief, of a corrosive guilt that taints the soul, and of a boy who maps his own destiny—weave in and out of the lives of those around them to form a dazzling kaleidoscope of a novel.
Beautiful, beguiling, and audacious, this is the story of a city and its people, of love and horror, of belonging and forgiveness: a powerful and unforgettable tale of modern India.
Review
"A spare, mysterious tale of erotic violence and illicit love that stays in the mind long after the last page has been turned . . . Mr. Jha exhibits a remarkable honesty as a writer, and he is in impressive command of a technique that creates a powerful psychological realism out of a new phantasmagoric collage . . . The Blue Bedspread is a brilliant beginning for a writer whose voice already shows a maturity well beyond his years." —Richard Bernstein, The New York Times, on The Blue Bedspread "Jha's highly original novel shimmers with the curious pleasure of stories that slowly emerge from the half-light of memory and grief." —Time Out New York on The Blue Bedspread "Jha combines the energy of a Salman Rushdie with the precise lyricism of an Amit Chaudhuri . . . . [The Blue Bedspread] is a powerful novel." —The New York Times Book Review on The Blue Bedspread "This debut novel, underscored by spare language reminiscent of a Raymond Carver story, packs a deceptive punch, unflinchingly delineating the familial turbulence raging just below the veneer of daily life." —Entertainment Weekly on The Blue Bedspread
Synopsis
Violence, sex, poverty, love, longing, new money, and new cities all come together in this magical novel by the prizewinning author of The Blue Bedspread.
About the Author
Raj Kamal Jha is Chief Editor of The Indian Express, which has won the International Press Institutes Award for Excellence in Journalism three times. His novels include The Blue Bedspread, winner of the 2000 Commonwealth Writers Prize for Best First Book (Eurasia) and a New York Times Notable Book of the Year; If You Are Afraid of Heights, a finalist for the Hutch-Crossword Book Award in 2003; and Fireproof. He works in New Delhi and lives in Gurgaon.