Book the keeper of desolation chapter 1

A farmer urges the Prime Minister to change the formula for compound interest A man refuses to make space for another on a train and is beaten to death A family living in a single room forgets one member even exists Surreal yet gritty violent yet poetic such is the world of Chandan Pandey s fiction Set deep in the heart of present day India The Keeper of Desolation chronicles the warped realities our everyday lives must confront and battle Immersive and provocative in equal measure these stories from one of the most powerful voices of our generation make for an arresting record of our times while transcending time itself Poignant and hard hitting GEETANJALI SHREE winner of the International Booker Prize 2022 for Tomb of Sand The Keeper of Desolation StoriesI translated the book it s very good even if I say so myself English Each of the stories is dark hints at inner violence and is almost dystopian Yet surreal though the stories appear each of them finds a faint resonance in reports that appear sporadically get discussed for a few days and then disappear again The power of the stories is in the fact that they seem absolutely improbable yet remind us of real events. The keeper of desolationu desolation meaning Though a work of fiction the book is a reflection of the numerous injustices that people from lower income and middle income communities are subject to The book also explores the hypocrisy of relationships especially those between men and women The book forces the reader to take a look at the reality that we try to ignore in the hope that a truth is no longer a truth if it is not acknowledged as one The book throws light of the power dynamics at play in every situation and of how people can end up losing everything including their life if they question the rules set by those in a position of power. The keeper of desolationzone Chandan Pandey burst like a meteor into the firmament of Indian English books with his translated novella Legal Fiction The book was hailed as the Kafka in Deoria Or Camus in the cowbelt and it was praised as being a sharp look at a terrifying Indian ism and the currents against it With The Keeper of Desolation he consolidates his position as perhaps the most original voice who describes the reality of modern day India. The keeper of desolation book pdf 25 starsReview The Keeper of Desolation by Chandan Pandey translated from Hindi by Sayari Debnath is a collection of 9 stories stories that reveal a yawning gap between the rich and poor those who wield power authority and the common man between dreams and reality spoken and unspoken words And it does this leaving a slim gap between fact and fiction the surreal feels almost real For instance in Wound we are reminded of several instances from across the world where shoes have been hurled at politicians eminent persons by frustrated commoners Here an illustrator working for a magazine has his intentions and actions questioned by the top management for drawing pictures of shoes The Junction germinates from a mob lynching and a death in a train when a man refuses to make space for another For the intense farmer strikes that rocked the nation farmers woes get a place in The Mathematics of Necessity where a farmer writes a letter to the PM of India requesting him to provide a humane formula for calculating interest over loans While this story feels light with wit and mild sarcasm the staggeringly high interest rates leaving people in debt hanging from a precipice is written in a deeply affecting fashion in The Alphabet of Grass The disproportionate power play not the powerplay of cricket unfolds in the titular story that reads like a farce Interrogation of some sort features in a couple of stories here but a threateningly menacing one in the story The Land was Ours leaves a deep impact The writing here is clever convoluted even a knotty affair at places that we learn to disentangle The translation so fine and erudite makes the reading wholesome Here socio political issues are juxtaposed with personal strife tender with brutal and stark with subtle That the author portrays women as ethereally beautiful objects meant for man s desire or lust irked me at times but this isn t unrealistic Harper Perennial editions normally have an insights section at the book s end a little disappointed that it s absent here These minor niggles aside The Keeper of Desolation unravels truths we have lived with for years some that we have even turned a blind eye to thanks to our privilege A wonderful collection of thought provoking stories English I had read this book back in May The nine stories of this collection capture starkly the social fabric of North India today There were stories that gripped me so firmly by its melodious language and intense plot that I could barely resist the temptation This book is one of those rare collection of stories written by Indian authors that reinstated my faith in regional languages to provide what Indian writing in English may be skirting away from Anyway let s not ramble here I have written about the book and my thoughts for The New Indian Express The link is below I enjoyed the author s commentary on the Indian women It was a smart move to only have stories where the lead were men but you get a sense of why is it so Thanks harpercollinsin for this copy The link is here English