Ophelia Field
Ghosh Story
The Lives of Others
By Neel Mukherjee
This, Neel Mukherjee’s second novel, after his first won India’s equivalent of the Booker Prize, is a historical family saga centring on a political issue not consigned to history – namely, Naxalite (Indian Maoist) terrorism. Set predominantly in the late 1960s, it tells the story of the Ghosh family, whose relationships are bound by complex hierarchies of birth order, skin colour, gender and money. Mental and emotional walls subdivide Prafullanath Ghosh’s Calcutta mansion, and the floors that his five adult children and their families occupy make the hierarchy literal to them and just about comprehensible to us.
The first chapters set the reader up to wonder why none of the characters have the courage to rebel against all the feudalism, patriarchy and prejudice that deform their lives. This section lays subtle groundwork for the introduction of Supratik, the eldest son of Prafullanath’s eldest son, who leaves his
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Congratulations to @HanKangOfficial, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature 2024.
We've lifted the paywall on Joanna Kavenna's review of The White Book from November 2017.
Joanna Kavenna - Carte Blanche
Joanna Kavenna: Carte Blanche - The White Book by Han Kang (Translated by Deborah Smith)
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Few surveys of British art exist. Those that do have given disproportionate space to recent trends and neglected the 150 years between Hogarth and Turner.
@robinsimonbaj examines what launched British artists of this era into the European stratosphere.
Robin Simon - The Wright Stuff
Robin Simon: The Wright Stuff - The Invention of British Art by Bendor Grosvenor
literaryreview.co.uk