Shortlisted for the Authors' Club Best First Novel Award - a brilliantly playful and entertaining first novel, Leela's Book weaves a wonderful tale of family life in contemporary Delhi
Born in 1976, Alice Albinia read English Literature at Cambridge, and South Asian History at SOAS. In between, she worked for two years in Delhi as a journalist and editor. Her previous book, Empires of the Indus, won the Somerset Maugham Award, the Authors' Club Dolman Travel Award and the Jerwood/Royal Society of Literature Prize.
A bold and delightful novel, executed with energy and flair...
Leela's Book is as much a meditation on tensions between brothers
and sisters, or between parents and their children, as it is a
rumination on the nature of storytelling. For a novel so thick in
plot, and so lush with details of Indian life, it reads
effortlessly. The result is magnificent
*Financial Times*
Leela's Book is a stimulating novel in which Albinia skilfully
manages an intricate plot and an enormous, diverse cast of
characters. Her immense historical acumen and sophisticated sense
of culture have enabled her to craft a powerful tale
*Guardian*
This is steeped in the tradition of the Indian epic, yet modern and
vastly entertaining
*The Times*
Bold, playful, smart and lively
*Time Out*
An epic, polyphonic juggernaut of a novel. Ambitious, skilfully
plotted, and full of wonderful surprises. I was hooked from the
very first page
*Tahmima Anam, author of A Golden Age*
Award-winning author Albinia (Empires of the Indus: The Story of a River) brings us an intricate story about a disastrous wedding; about two families that couldn't be more different; about faith, class, and politics in Indian society; and about storytelling itself. It is set in contemporary Delhi and narrated from various viewpoints, including that of Ganesh, the elephant-headed god and scribe of India's great epic, the Mahabharata. Echoing aspects of the epic tale, the narrative follows the lives of Leela and Meera, sisters who have been victimized through various incarnations by Vyasa, composer of the Mahabharata. However, Ganesh has a few tricks up his (many) sleeves, and it may be time for some modern-day retribution, which starts as Leela arrives in Delhi from New York and throws everyone and everything into deliciously described turmoil. VERDICT Albinia handles the complex plot and many, diverse characters she has created with skill and humor while at the same time offering an insightful look at the sociopolitical complexity of present-day India. A remarkable debut novel. [See Prepub Alert, 8/15/11.]-Gwen Vredevoogd, Marymount Univ. Lib., Arlington, VA (c) Copyright 2011. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
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