Synopses & Reviews
On November 1, 1984, a day after Prime Minister Indira Gandhi's assassination, Raj, a nineteen-year-old student, travels back from a class trip to the northern regions of India with his professor and mentor. As the group disembarks at the Delhi train station, a mob surrounds the professor, throws a tire over him, douses him in gasoline and sets him alight. Even after moving to Ithaca, New York, where the Raj earns his Ph.D., marries, has children, and takes a post at Cornell, he finds that his past will not leave him alone. He is compelled to return home to find his professor's widow, the beautiful and enigmatic Nelly. Working as a librarian in a crumbling British building, Nelly has been attempting for years to bury herself under the archives of her country's colonial history. As the two walk through the misty mountains of Shimla, painful memories emerge. But as Nelly comes up against a nation that refuses to remember, and Raj faces the distressing truth about his father's role in the genocidal murder of the Sikhs, they both find that the path inexorably leads back to that train station in Delhi. Fusing documentary and fictional impulses, connected to a largely untouched event in Indian history, Jaspreet Singh has crafted an affecting and important novel. An homage to W. G. Sebald, complete with black-and-white photographs throughout, and to Primo Levi's The Periodic Table, Helium is a book of memory, collective silences, and personal trauma-a haunting, beautiful, and shocking work of fiction.
Review
"A tour de force." —
The Globe and Mail"An indictment of the terrrible events of November, 1984, the book teases out the complicated intersection of family, love, politics, and hate, and how one man confronts the responsibility and guilt of one of the worst times in his nation's history." —
Publishers Weekly"A poignant and devastating depiction of how silencing fails to annul complicity." —
Daphne Marlatt"In
Helium, Jaspreet Singh evokes, with striking images and prose that honours W.G. Sebald, Orhan Pamuk, and Primo Levi, the 1984 massacre of Sikhs in India. It is a feat of chemistry, but also of alchemy, for Singh transforms the seemingly ineffable—the enduring chaos engendered by mob violence—into a work of fiction both beguiling and lyrical." —
Taras Grescoe “Singh illuminates a horrific event: the systematic genocide of minority Sikhs in November 1984 . . . [A] brutally honest indictment of an often glossed-over episode in Indias long history.” —Booklist
Synopsis
Jaspreet Singh's second novel, Helium, wrestles with the defining experience of his life: the attack on the Sikh citizens of India after the assassination of Indira Gandhi.
Synopsis
Longlisted for the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature
On 1 November 1984, a day after Prime Minister Indira Gandhi's assassination, a nineteen-year-old student, Raj, travels back from a class trip with his mentor, Professor Singh. As the group disembark at Delhi station a mob surrounds the professor, throws a tire over him, douses him in gasoline, and sets him alight.
Years later, after moving to the United States, Raj finds himself compelled to return to India to find his professor's widow, the beautiful and enigmatic Nelly. As the two walk through the misty mountains of Shimla, painful memories emerge, and Raj realizes he must face the truth about his father's role in a genocidal pogrom. But, as they soon discover, the path leads inexorably back to that day at the train station.
In this lyrical and haunting exploration of one of the most shocking moments in the history of the Indian nation, Jaspreet Singh has crafted an affecting and important story of memory, collective silences and personal trauma.
Synopsis
In 1984, a day after the assassination of Indira Gandhi by her Sikh bodyguards, a nineteen-year-old student, Raj Kumar, travels back from a class trip in the north with his professor. On their arrival at Delhi station a mob surrounds Professor Singh, throws a tire over him and sets him alight. Raj stands by helplessly. Soon afterwards Raj moves to the United States, where he studies and later teaches at Cornell University. He marries, has children, and tries to forget. But he finds himself haunted by the "past that refuses to become past," and twenty-five years later he is compelled to return home to visit his professor's widow, the beautiful and enigmatic Nelly, who after her husband's death takes refuge in Shimla where she works in the library of the crumbling Viceregal Lodge, a fossil left behind by the British. The days they spend together in that colonial hill station make it possible, bit by bit, for him to recover a few details of the painful event, which changed both their lives forever. Now he is ready to confront his father, a retired police officer, who played a significant role in the terrible Sikh pogroms that led to his beloved professor's death.An homage to W. G. Sebald (including evocative black-and-white photographs throughout) and to Primo Levi's The Periodic Table, Helium is a book of forgetting, remembering, personal silences, and collective trauma. It is a haunting, beautiful, and shocking work of art.
Synopsis
Jaspreet Singh's follow up to Chef wrestles with one of the most shocking moments in the history of the Indian nation
Synopsis
On 1 November 1984, a day after Prime Minister Indira Gandhi's assassination, a nineteen-year-old student, Raj, travels back from a class trip with his mentor, Professor Singh. As the group disembark at Delhi station a mob surrounds the professor, throws a tire over him, douses him in gasoline, and sets him alight.
Years later, after moving to the United States, Raj finds himself compelled to return to India to find his professor's widow, the beautiful and enigmatic Nelly. As the two walk through the misty mountains of Shimla, painful memories emerge, and Raj realizes he must face the truth about his father's role in a genocidal pogrom. But, as they soon discover, the path leads inexorably back to that day at the train station.
In this lyrical and haunting exploration of one of the most shocking moments in the history of the Indian nation, Jaspreet Singh has crafted an affecting and important story of memory, collective silences and personal trauma.
Synopsis
On November 1st 1984, a day after the assassination of Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, a nineteen-year-old student travels back from a class trip with his mentor and chemistry teacher, Professor Singh. As the group disembark at Delhi station a mob surrounds the professor, throws a tire over him, douses him in gasoline and sets him alight.Years later the student, Raj, is compelled to find his professor's widow, the beautiful Nelly. As the two walk through the misty mountains of Shimla, Nelly comes up against a nation in denial, Raj faces the truth about his father's role in the Sikh massacre and they both find the path leads back to the train station. Jaspreet Singh crafts an affecting and important story of a largely untouched moment in Indian memory.
Synopsis
Jaspreet Singh's follow up to Chef wrestles with one of the most shocking moments in the history of the Indian nation
About the Author
Born in India, Jaspreet Singh moved to Canada in 1990. He is a novelist, essayist, short story writer, and a former research scientist. He received his doctorate in chemical engineering in 1998 from McGill University, Montreal, and two years later decided to focus full time on writing. Seventeen Tomatoes, his debut story collection, won the 2004 Quebec First Book Prize. Chef, his first novel, about the damaged landscapes of Kashmir, was a 2010 Observer Book of the Year and won the Canadian Georges Bugnet Award for Fiction. He has also been a finalist for four awards including the Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Best Book. His work was longlisted for the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature and the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, and has been translated into French, Spanish, Italian, Punjabi, and Farsi. He lives in Toronto. www.jaspreetsinghauthor.com