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