Manil Suri’s acclaimed novel follows the spiritual journey of a dying man named Vishnu on the landing of a Bombay apartment building, while the lives of the residents around him unfold with comedy, longing, and conflict.
Author: Manil Suri Format: Paperback Publisher: Bloomsbury Publication date: May 7, 2012 Pages: 352 Language: English ISBN: 9780747557616
Vishnu, the odd-job man in a Bombay apartment block, lies dying on the staircase landing. Around him the lives of the apartment dwellers unfold - the warring housewives on the first floor, the lovesick teenagers on the second, and the widower, alone and quietly grieving at the top of the building.
In a fevered state Vishnu looks back on his love affair with the seductive Padmini and comedy becomes tragedy as his life draws to a close.
About the Author
Manil Suri was born in Bombay in 1959 and is a distinguished university professor of mathematics at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. He has written three novels,The Death of Vishnu,The Age of Shiva, andThe City of Devi, as well as the non-fiction book,The Big Bang of Numbers: How to Build the Universe Using Only Maths.
His fiction has been translated into twenty-seven languages, longlisted for the Booker Prize, shortlisted for the PEN/Faulkner Award,LA TimesBook Award, PEN/Hemingway Award and the W H Smith Literary Award, and has won the McKitterick Prize and the Barnes & Noble Discover Award. He was named byTimemagazine as a 'Person to Watch' in 2000. He lives in Maryland, USA.
Reviews
"A remarkable literary debut [that] reads like the work of a highly skilled and experienced practitioner of the writer's craft."
Los Angeles Times Book Review
"An amalgam of early Naipaul and R.K. Narayan, with just a whiff of Kosinski’s Being There. A highly likable, if oddly conceived and assembled, debut novel."
Kirkus Review
"Suri’s literary debut is a stunning, poignant combination of starkly contrasting worlds. The seemingly mundane Bombay metropolis is fused with the beauty and depth of Hindu mythology in this impressive literary accomplishment."
Yale Review of Books
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