The attraction of the story of eternal love of an emperor for his begum does not fade.
Brilliant dream passages featuring Krishna, Arjuna and Rama contrast awkwardly with cliched conversation between stereotypical operatives.
Explores Hindu-Muslim interaction in pre-partition India, the trauma of migration and the burden of the past with a delicate touch.
Literary allusions abound, but they can get a bit much in one go; Wodehousian flourishes can begin to pall. Dip in and out.
The novel lurches fitfully from one episode to the other, reducing tragic history to a two-dimensional farce.
Poetic, assured, Khair uses allusion, metaphor,photography and barbed wire to weave his tale
Desai is to be commended for documenting a major social ugliness in unflinching detail and producing a fluent page-turner in the process.
Edited with dedication and sympathy and includes contemporary narratives that give it a historical context
There is little to commend in this novel for which we must blame the generosity—or carelessness—of India’s burgeoning publishing industry
A stellar service to Punjabi literature—and to non-Punjabi readers—by bringing 40-odd Punjabi stories into the mainstream.
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