
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
India has found its Ben Elton. Here is an Indian writer who uses a plot that spans just 24 hours that brings several characters, whose lives have crossed before, to a single location on a fateful day. When the 24 hours are up, everyone's life is transformed (Ben Elton's Popcorn, Blast from the Past). But where Ben Elton uses dark humor, Eshwar delves into the dark side of people.
I have worked in the software industry and have been stationed in a foreign city for some time. I speak for a lot of people like me when I say Eshwar is absolutely spot-on in recreating the life of the Indian techie working outside India. And he has worked really hard to get the non-Indian characters right (though they slip into an Indian style of speaking at times, but then Eshwar's readers are mostly Indians, so who cares). The plot is gripping and fast paced. There is a brooding protagonist. While every character philosophically introspects, the introspection is closely connected to the plot. So no unconnected soul-searching of the kind that tugs on the readers eye-lids.
I would highly recommend this book to every Indian techie and everyone who wants to understand the Indian techie. I would also recommend it to people who may have assumed all Indian writers are as yawn inducing as Anita Desai or Jhumpa Lahiri. Eshwar, just like Mukul Deva, Aroon Raman, Ashwin Sanghi, is out to prove otherwise. Though Eshwar does not want to be compared to another writer, as a reviewer and reader, comparisons are inevitable. I think Eshwar = Ben Elton + the Jack Higgins of Valhalla Exchange.
Good: Set in an interesting foreign city, believable Indian/non-Indian characters, tight plot, fast-paced
Could Have Been Better: The climax could have been longer to make it more gripping, the serial killer could have more characterization.
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