Kiran Nagarkar

Ravan & Eddie

Cuckold

The time is early 16th century. The Rajput kingdom of Mewar is at the height of its power. It is locked in war with the Sultanates of Delhi, Gujarat and Malwa. But there is another deadly battle being waged within Mewar itself. who will inherit the throne after the death of the Maharana? The course of history, not just of Mewar but of the whole of India, is about to be changed forever. At the centre of Cuckold is the narrator, heir apparent of Mewar, who questions the codes, conventions and underlying assumptions of the feudal world of which he is a part, a world in which political and personal conduct are dictated by values of courage, valour and courtesy; and death is preferable to dishonour. A quintessentially Indian story, Cuckold has an immediacy and appeal that are truely universal.

God'S Little Soldier

It s a complex universe that Kiran Nagarkar leads us into. Seven Sixes are Forty Three explores the dimensions of relationships in terms of an empty physicality and loneliness as an inherent element in modern lives. Translated by Subha Slee, the novel s quest for compatibility is inspiring.

Seven Sixes are Forty Three

'Jasoda is as compelling and powerful as Nagarkar's other novels but uniquely itself in the gut-wrenching story it tells of the sordid uses of power, the suffering it causes, and the human spirit that rises above it.' -- Nayantara Sahgal 'Nagarkar's storytelling genius takes us into the abyss of poverty and patriarchy -- source of both inspiration and shame. Jasoda's brutal but transformative journey is the foil to counterfeit historical grandeur. With empathy turned to prose of pure steel, Nagarkar paints a modern Indian heroine.' -- Mitali Saran 'A novel that stops your breath and doesn't let go until you get to the end. Jasoda: mother, murderer or saint? You'll want to put her down. But she won't let you.' -- Manjula Padmanabhan 'No one can spin a yarn with such rollicking exuberance as Kiran Nagarkar, and no one exposes contemporary India's dark underbelly, in all its casual brutality, like him. Jasoda is a tour-de-force of razor-sharp observation and profound compassion, brilliantly realized.' --Ritu Menon Paar -- 'mirage' country, where it is often impossible to draw the line between reality and illusion -- has been suffering from a decade-long drought. Jasoda is one of the last to leave this 'arse-end of the world' with her children and mother-in-law. Since her husband claims he has important work to do for the local prince, Jasoda must make the journey to the city by the sea on her own. Meanwhile, after years of anonymity, Paar seems poised to take off. Will Jasoda return home with her children? Or stay in the city that's become home for her children? It's taken for granted that epic journeys and epics were possible only during the time of the Mahabharata, the Odyssey, or the Iliad. Even more to the point, the heroes of the epics had to, perforce, be men. The eponymous Jasoda of the novel is about to prove how wrong the assumptions are. Kiran Nagarkar's trenchant narrative traces the journey of a woman of steely resolve and gumption, making her way through an India that is patriarchal, feudal, seldom in the news, and weighed down by dehumanizing poverty.

A Novel

Jasoda

*ing Ravan & Eddie

The Extras

Ravan and Eddie

Ravan and Eddie are back! And they're bigger, better and guaranteed to have you laughing out loud. Having grown up in the city of movie stars who drip glamour, the two mortal enemies, Ravan and Eddie dream of strutting down the road to super-stardom. But can Ravan, a lowly taxi driver, and Eddie, a bouncer-cum-bartender at an illegal bar, rise from their dusty CWD chawl to the glittering heights of international fame? To complicate matters further, their love lives hang by a thread. Eddie, secure in having got Belle, the Anglo-Indian girl of his dreams, must now figure out how to overcome prejudice from both their families and his own apathy, in order to keep her. And Eddie's sister Pieta, the object of Ravan's adoration, is completely oblivious to his existence - until he saves her life. Complete with a cast of soul-searching drunks, a nemesis called Three Point One, and nymph-like damsels in distress, The Extras is much more than a book about Bollywood or Bombay. It is the engrossing tale of a near-epic struggle against obscurity and towards self-realization; and is outrageously exuberant in the telling, and touching in its depiction of the large and small tragedies that shape our lives.

The time is early 16th century. The Rajput kingdom of Mewar is at the height of its power. It is locked in war with the Sultanates of Delhi, Gujarat and Malwa. But there is another deadly battle being waged within Mewar itself. Who will inherit the throne after the death of the Maharana? The course of history, not just of Mewar but of the whole of India, is about to be changed forever.At the centre of Cuckold is the narrator, heir apparent of Mewar, who questions the codes, conventions and underlying assumptions of the feudal world of which he is a part, a world in which political and personal conduct are dictated by values of courage, valour and courtesy; and death is preferable to dishonour. A quintessentially Indian story, Cuckold has an immediacy and appeal that are truly universal.

Kiran Nagarkar is one of India's most significant writers. Of a piece with his searing, dark, wickedly funny works are these experiments with form: the screenplay Black Tulip and the play Bedtime Story, both of which, in keeping with the author's virtuosi

Black Tulip and Bedtime Story

Ravan and Eddie are the unlikeliest of companions. For one thing, Ravan is Hindu, while Eddie is Catholic. For another, when Ravan was a baby and fell from a balcony, that fall had a dramatic, and very literal, impact on Eddie’s family. But Ravan and Eddie both live in Central Works Department Chawl No. 17—and if you grow up in the crowded Mumbai chawls, you get to participate in your neighbors' lives, whether you like it or not. As we watch the two unlikely heroes of Kiran Nagarkar's acclaimed novel rocket out of the starting blocks of their lives, leaving earth-mothers and absentee fathers, cataclysms and rock ’n’ roll in their wake, we're compelled to sit up and take notice. Recently selected by The Guardian as one of the ten best novels about Mumbai, Ravan and Eddie is a comic masterpiece about two larger- and truer-than-life characters and their bawdy, Rabelaisian adventures in postcolonial India. It is also a timeless journey of self-discovery, a quest for the meaning of guilt and responsibility, sin and sex, crime and punishment.

God's Little Soldier From the backstreets of Bombay to the hallowed halls ofCambridge, from the mountains of Afghanistan to a monastery inCalifornia, the story of Zia Khan is an extraordinary rollercoasterride; a compelling cliffhanger of a spiritual quest, about a goodman gone bad and the brutalization of his soul. Growing up in a well-to-do, cultured Muslim family in Bombay,Zia, a gifted young mathematician, is torn between theunquestioning certainties of his aunt's faith and the tolerant,easy-going views of his parents. At Cambridge University, his beliefs crystallize into a ferventorthodoxy, which ultimately leads him to a terrorist training campin Afghanistan. The burden of endemic violence and killings,however, takes its toll on Zia. Tormented by his need forforgiveness, he is then drawn reluctantly to Christ. But peacecontinues to elude him, and Zia is once again driven to seek outcauses to defend and fight for, whatever be the sacrificesinvolved. Posited against Zia is his brother, Amanat, a writer whose lifeis severely constrained by sickness, even as his mind is liberatedby doubt. Theirs is a relationship that is as much a blood bond asit is an opaque wall of incomprehension. Weaving together thenarratives of the extremist and the liberal, God's Little Soldierunderscores the incoherent ambiguities of good and evil, and thetragic conflicts that have riven people and nations.

God's Little Soldier

'Jasoda is as compelling and powerful as Nagarkar's other novels but uniquely itself in the gut-wrenching story it tells of the sordid uses of power, the suffering it causes, and the human spirit that rises above it.' - Nayantara Sahgal 'Nagarkar's storytelling genius takes us into the abyss of poverty and patriarchy - source of both inspiration and shame. Jasoda's brutal but transformative journey is the foil to counterfeit historical grandeur. With empathy turned to prose of pure steel, Nagarkar paints a modern Indian heroine.' - Mitali Saran 'A novel that stops your breath and doesn't let go until you get to the end. Jasoda: mother, murderer or saint? You'll want to put her down. But she won't let you.' - Manjula Padmanabhan 'No one can spin a yarn with such rollicking exuberance as Kiran Nagarkar, and no one exposes contemporary India's dark underbelly, in all its casual brutality, like him. Jasoda is a tour-de-force of razor-sharp observation and profound compassion, brilliantly realized.' -Ritu Menon Paar - 'mirage' country, where it is often impossible to draw the line between reality and illusion - has been suffering from a decade-long drought. Jasoda is one of the last to leave this 'arse-end of the world' with her children and mother-in-law. Since her husband claims he has important work to do for the local prince, Jasoda must make the journey to the city by the sea on her own. Meanwhile, after years of anonymity, Paar seems poised to take off. Will Jasoda return home with her children? Or stay in the city that's become home for her children? It's taken for granted that epic journeys and epics were possible only during the time of the Mahabharata, the Odyssey, or the Iliad. Even more to the point, the heroes of the epics had to, perforce, be men. The eponymous Jasoda of the novel is about to prove how wrong the assumptions are. Kiran Nagarkar's trenchant narrative traces the journey of a woman of steely resolve and gumption, making her way through an India that is patriarchal, feudal, seldom in the news, and weighed down by dehumanizing poverty.

Jasoda: A Novel

An extremely funny novel about two larger-than-life heroes and their bawdy, Rabelaisian adventures in post-colonial urban India 'A first-rate novel - Kiran Nagarkar is a born story-teller with an unerring eye for detail - and an artist of the erotica.' - Khushwant Singh 'Ravan and Eddie remains one of the finest books written with Mumbai as a backdrop. It's uproariously funny, outrageously irreverent ... [and] reveals the city as a character, an actor, a living being.' - Pankaj Upadhyaya, Mumbai Mirror 'Nagarkar is a genuine experimentalist: he combines in his writing a tremendous instinct for storytelling with a rare openness of imagination. He is willing to go where it takes him, express it in whatever form and through whichever language. What remains constant is his subversive pleasure in fiction for its own sake. It makes him one of our most precious writers.' - Anjum Hasan, The Caravan 'Nagarkar's second novel [is] insouciant, savage, disarming and profound - [His] imagery has the quality of switch-blades flickering in the dark alley of the narrative. [His] humour is dark, but passionate.' - Manjula Padmanabhan, The Asian Age 'It's bawdy, it's wicked and it's irreverent. [Ravan and Eddie] is a wild romp through a quintessential Indian institution: the chawl.' - Business World

An extremely funny novel about two larger-than-life heroes and their bawdy, Rabelaisian adventures in post-colonial urban India. 'Nagarkar is a genuine experimentalist: he combines in his writing a tremendous instinct for storytelling with a rare openness of imagination. He is willing to go where it takes him, express it in whatever form and through whichever language. What remains constant is his subversive pleasure in fiction for its own sake. It makes him one of our most precious writers.' - AnjumHasan, The Caravan Nagarkar's second novel (is) insouciant, savage, disarming and profound... (His) imagery has the quality of switch-blades flickering in the dark alley of the narrative. (His) humour is dark, but passionate. - ManjulaPadmanabhan, The Asian Age 'Ravan and Eddie remains one of the finest books written with Mumbai as a backdrop. It's uproariously funny, outrageously irreverent ... (and) reveals the city as a character, an actor, a living being.' - PankajUpadhyaya, Mumbai Mirror 'It's bawdy, it's wicked and it's irreverent. (Ravan and Eddie) is a wild romp through a quintessential Indian institution: the chawl.' - Business World

Kiran Nagarkar

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