| Comic novels, full of loveable eccentrics and sly social commentary, seem to be one of 'new' India’s main exports; this is one of the sharpest and funniest examples.
Kate Saunders The Times
|
Mr Ahuja, Minister of Urban Development, is beset by problems: thirteen children and another on the way, not to mention the daily struggles over whether to resign for the sixty-third time; his wife, Sangita, adrift on a sea of knitting and nappies, is mourning the loss of her favourite TV soap star; son Rishi drives everyone mad with his serial apologies; and finally there's Arjun, the oldest and perhaps the wisest of the sprawling, noisy crew.
For once, though, Arjun is confounded: how to tell the girl on the school bus that he's crazy about her? (Serenading her with cover versions of Bryan Adams' greatest hits perhaps isn't the answer.) And Arjun's father must not only confront the roots of his strange and disturbing marriage but do so in the troubled landscape of modern-day New Delhi that he himself has built. Following father and son as they blunder their way over and under the flyovers of the megalopolis, Karan Mahajan brilliantly juggles the cultural and political worlds of India's capital city to create a moving – and fast-moving – portrait of modern family life.
|
| |
| I recommend Karan Mahajan's debut novel Family Planning. It's the truest portrait of modern New Delhi I've read, and the funniest book of the year.
Suketu Metu
|
| Karan Mahajan is a natural – a masterful storyteller, an assured stylist and a gentle satirist whose unblinking vision is ultimately tempered by compassion… One of the best comic novels I've read in years.
Jay McInerney, author of Bright Lights, Big City
|
| Mahajan’s debut is sharp, funny and stylishly assured. Hugely enjoyable.
Eithne Farry Daily Mail
|
| Mahajan is only 24 years old, but he has a mature and impressive grasp of poignant comedy and has opened up Delhi to western readers in a way that a more overtly politicised novel may not.
Francesca Segal Observer
|
| Mahajan presents a portrait of a family that is both comical and heartbreaking. His effortless blending of comedy and tragedy is irresistible.
Publishers Weekly
|
| Sharply written, bracingly funny and unexpectedly moving - Karan Mahajan combines 'take no prisoners' satire with haunting insights into the human condition.
Manil Suri, author of THE DEATH OF VISHNU
|
| This is a bittersweet comedy set in a thoroughly 21st-century subcontinent.
Melissa McClements Financial Times
More
Information
Chatto & Windus • Modern fiction • Previous
ISBN: 070118261X
Publication date: 05/02/2009 • 288 pages • Demy Octavo • EAN: 9780701182618 |
| |
| |
|
|
|
| |
| Buy Family Planning
and other great titles from rBooks.co.uk. |
