Synopses & Reviews
"Tyrewalas insightful introduction greatly enhances the reading experience, and the glossary helps, too . . . The collection is astonishingly diverse . . . Tyrewalas anthology [offers] a sampling of brand-new authors and [a] superb introduction. It might provide a fictional contrast to Katherine Boos
Behind the Beautiful Forevers."
--Library Journal (Starred review)
"Most of the 14 short stories in Akashics workmanlike Mumbai volume draw inspiration from the criminal networks and the sordid underbelly the city is infamous for . . . Armchair travelers will find plenty of amusement in touring the seedier parts of this island city in perfect safety."
--Publishers Weekly
The fifteen contributors to Mumbai Noir . . . provide a cool composite narrative of a unique human-intensive metropolitan system, whose magnitude, complexity, diversity, and pace can hardly be captured in writing or, for that matter, any other medium. [Mumbai Noir is] rich and diverse in character and characterization.”
--Rain Taxi Review of Books
Featuring brand-new stories by: Annie Zaidi, R. Raj Rao, Abbas Tyrewala, Avtar Singh, Ahmed Bunglowala, Smita Harish Jain, Sonia Faleiro, Altaf Tyrewala, Namita Devidayal, Jerry Pinto, Kalpish Ratna, Riaz Mulla, Paromita Vohra, and Devashish Makhija.
Bombays communal riots of 1992--in which Hindus were alleged to be the primary perpetratorswere followed by retaliatory bomb blasts in 1993, masterminded by the Muslim-dominated underworld. Over a thousand citizens lost their lives in these internecine bouts of violence and thousands more became refugees in their own city. In a matter of months, Bombay ceased to be the cosmopolitan, wholesome, and middle-class bastion it had been for decades. When the city was renamed Mumbai in 1995, it merely formalized the widespread perception that the Bombay everyone knew and remembered had been lost forever.
Today Mumbai is like any other Asian city on the rise, with gigantic construction cranes winding atop upcoming skyscrapers and malls . . . Right-wing violence, failing electricity and water supplies, overcrowding, and the ever-looming threat of terrorist attacksthese are some of the gruesome ground realities that Mumbais middle and working classes must deal with every day, while the citys super-rich . . . zip from roof to roof in their private choppers. Abandoned by its wealthy, mistreated by its politicians and administrators, Mumbai continues to thrive primarily because of the helpless resilience of its hardworking, upright citizens.
The stories in Mumbai Noir depict the many ways in which the citys ever-present shadowy aspects often force themselves onto the lives of ordinary people. . . . What emerges is the sense of a city that, despite its new name and triumphant tryst with capitalism, is yet to heal from the wounds of the early '90s, and from all the subsequent acts of havoc wreaked within its precincts by both local and outside forces.
Synopsis
Following the success of Delhi Noir and the film Slumdog Millionaire, Mumbai now enters the Noir series arena.
Synopsis
"Most of the 14 short stories in Akashic's workmanlike Mumbai volume draw inspiration from the criminal networks and the sordid underbelly the city is infamous for . . . Armchair travelers will find plenty of amusement in touring the seedier parts of this island city in perfect safety." --Publishers Weekly
Akashic Books continues its groundbreaking series of original noir anthologies, launched in 2004 with Brooklyn Noir. Each story is set in a distinct neighborhood or location within the city of the book.
Brand-new stories by: Annie Zaidi, R. Raj Rao, Abbas Tyrewala, Avtar Singh, Ahmed Bunglowala, Smita Harish Jain, Sonia Faleiro, Altaf Tyrewala, Namita Devidayal, Jerry Pinto, Kalpish Ratna, Riaz Mulla, Paromita Vohra, and Devashish Makhija.
Synopsis
Brand-new stories by Devashish Makhija, Abbas Tyrewala, Ahmed Bunglowala, Annie Zaidi, Avtar Singh, Jerry Pinto, Sonia Faleiro, Riyaz Mulla, Smita Jain Oxford, Altaf Tyrewala, and others.
Altaf Tyrewalawas born in Mumbai and graduated from Baruch College, New York. He is the author of the critically acclaimed novelNo God In Sight, which has been published across the world and translated into several European languages. His nonfiction has been featured inGQmagazine,Tehelka,Mumbai Mirror,Mail Today, andPeoplemagazine. He has been awarded the DAAD Artist-in-Berlin literature grant for 2011, and is currently working on his second novel. He lives in Berlin, Germany, and Mumbai, India.
About the Author
Altaf Tyrewala was born in Mumbai and graduated from Baruch College, New York. He is the author of the critically acclaimed novel
No God in Sight, which has been published across the world and translated into several European languages. His nonfiction has been featured in
GQ, Tehelka, Mumbai Mirror, Mail Today, and
People. He has been awarded the DAAD Artist-in-Berlin literature grant for 2011, and is currently working on his second novel.