The Lives of Others
by Neel Mukherjee
2013/ 505 pages
rating:  8.75 / historical fiction

Another long one – omg – but it won a slot on the Man Booker    short list in 2014 so the Booker Prize reading group chose it for their June/July discussion – And I’m “categorizing” this as historical fiction because the author was born in 1970,  about 2 or 3 years prior to the main events which were almost 50 years ago and then there’s a lot of backstory which goes back to 1902 or so.  It’s basically a family saga in times of national trouble.

Be warned – this novel has some incredibly violent scenes – not for the queasy.

The frame story takes place in Calcutta and the forest regions of West Bengal some time in 1967 but there are  India  has been an independent nation for almost 20 years, but things are not as some folks want them. In fact it seems to some they are worse than ever for many. >>>>MORE>>>>