A darkly funny, sharply observed, and deeply moving novel about the surprises and struggles of life in contemporary Delhi
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‘A beautiful novel exploring tensions in modern India’ OBSERVER
‘Confirms Anjum Hasan as one of the most important writers of our time’ WILLIAM DALRYMPLE
Alif is a middle-aged, mild-mannered history teacher, living in contemporary Delhi, at a time in India’s history when Muslims are seen either as hapless victims or live threats. Though his life’s passion is the history he teaches, it’s the present that presses down on him: his wife is set on a bigger house and a better car while trying to ace her MBA exams; his teenage son wants to quit school to get rich; his supercilious colleagues are suspicious of a Muslim teaching India’s history; and his old friend Ganesh has just reconnected with a childhood sweetheart with whom Alif was always rather enamored himself.
And then the unthinkable happens. While Alif is leading a school field trip, a student goads him, and in a fit of anger, Alif twists his ear. His job suddenly on the line, Alif finds his life rapidly descending into chaos. Meanwhile, his home city, too, darkens under the spreading shadow of violence.
In this darkly funny, sharply observed, and shockingly moving novel, Anjum Hasan deftly and delicately explores the life of Muslims in India and the force and consequence of remembering your people’s history in an increasingly indifferent milieu.
‘Hasan’s eye is sharp and her aim is unerring. This is a work of sublime elegance’ SHRUTI SWAMY, author of The Archer
‘Told in a subdued, sad, ironical tenor, it is compassionate without being sentimental’ GEETANJALI SHREE, author of the International Booker Prize-winning Tomb of Sand
‘Extremely timely … History’s Angel helps us view the erasures of the past through a living lens with sensitivity and nuance’ DAISY ROCKWELL
Product description
Review
A wonderful Delhi novel for our times, a Shahr-e-Ashob of the new India. History’s Angel is eloquent, brave, elegiac and, ultimately, heartbreaking. This remarkable novel confirms Anjum Hasan as one of our finest and most important writers. — WILLIAM DALRYMPLE
History’s Angel is a seething seismic tale . Told in a subdued, sad, ironical tenor, it is compassionate without being sentimental. The novel asserts humanity and hope in the face of widening fissures through its main protagonist who draws sustenance from a deep historical perspective. — GEETANJALI SHREE, author of the International Booker Prize-winning Tomb of Sand
Extremely timely . History’s Angel helps us view the erasures of the past through a living lens. With sensitivity and nuance, Anjum Hasan draws us into the world of Alif. — DAISY ROCKWELL, translator of the International Booker Prize-winning Tomb of Sand
This absorbing novel trespasses, from sentence to sentence, the boundaries that usually demarcate the grandeur of the historical from the tedium, humour and disappointments of ordinary human life. Domesticity, everyday routine, and our historical pasts and futures are conjoined here tantalisingly, with impressive skill, and with real tenderness. — AMIT CHAUDHURI
A shimmering, intelligent rage roils under a cool surface in History’s Angel, which manages at once to be “made so insistently, so noisily, of now” and inhabit layers of history. Hasan’s eye is sharp and her aim is unerring. This is a work of sublime elegance. — SHRUTI SWAMY
Wonderfully restrained, shrewdly comic novel — Anna Mundow ― Wall Street Journal Published On: 2023-07-21
Erudite and languid novel…Hasan’s layering of history and personal drama accrues a subtle but undeniable power ― Publishers Weekly Published On: 2023-05-05
Poignant and thought-provoking novel…deftly highlights the power of ideas and the peril of majoritarianism — Murali Kamma ― New York Journal of Books Published On: 2023-07-17
An extraordinary book about a life most ordinary…Hasan is cannily observant, a sophisticated writer with a wry and subtle sense of humour — Aradhika Sharma ― Tribune Published On: 2023-07-09
An important book…the characters are compelling, the setting painfully accurate and the sentences shine — Saudamini Jain ― Hindustan Times Published On: 2023-07-14
An engrossing read, encompassing India’s past, present and future — Neha Kirpal ― The Patriot Published On: 2023-07-18
Hasan’s prose is introspective, carefully observed, and imbued with more than what is said … [Her] gaze is clear-sighted and unflinching ― Indian Express
Remarkable and insightful … Engrossing … Elegant. ― National Herald
Genius … one of the finest Indian writers alive ― Firstpost –This text refers to the hardcover edition.
About the Author
Anjum Hasan is the author of three novels and two short story collections, which have been shortlisted for the Sahiya Akademi Award, the Hindu Best Fiction Award and the Crossword Fiction Award, and longlisted for the Man Asia Literary Prize and the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature. Her short fiction and essays have appeared in the New York Review of Books, the Paris Review, and the Los Angeles Review of Books, among many others. –This text refers to the hardcover edition.
Book Description
A darkly funny and sharply observed novel that captures the glory and gloom of India past and present like no other. –This text refers to the hardcover edition.
Product details
- ASIN : B0BT7BWWWF
- Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing; 1st edition (6 July 2023)
- Language : English
- File size : 4173 KB
- Text-to-Speech : Enabled
- Screen Reader : Supported
- Enhanced typesetting : Enabled
- X-Ray : Not Enabled
- Word Wise : Enabled
- Print length : 311 pages
- Best Sellers Rank: #38,464 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #2,661 in Contemporary Fiction (Kindle Store)
- #6,665 in Contemporary Fiction (Books)