An accomplished first novel that spans two continents and many lives
Niladri Dasgupta’s marriage is over; he hasn’t seen his little daughter in five years, having fled as far away as he could manage from the scene of disaster. Now his uncle has been brutally murdered, and he must finally return for the funeral to confront everything he has evaded thus far. And this is just the opening of his all-too-real nightmare.
What journeys begin beyond the frontiers of family, home and identity? What remains of you after every role you played, every readymade definition you took for granted—as husband, father, son and citizen—has disintegrated? Where do you seek shelter when the world around will grant you no respite from upheaval or change? Cast out beyond all certainties, Niladri must choose as he narrates, and act as he understands, recreating himself gradually amid his relentlessly shattering world. A fine balance of emotion and intelligence, incident and character, Or the Day Seizes You captures the urban Indian psyche at the close of the twentieth century with unerring insight and remarkable style.
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