by Manil Suri
Part of The Hindu Gods, book 1
First published 2002
Vishnu lies dying on the bottom step of a Bombay apartment building. The aging alcoholic houseboy faces his end with quiet acceptance while chaos erupts around him. The building's residents wage petty wars over shared kitchens and nurse old grievances. A widower grieves his young wife's death in isolation. A Muslim family endures daily prejudice from their Hindu neighbors. Everything explodes when the Muslim family's son elopes with the Hindu family's daughter. Mr. Jalal, the Muslim patriarch, suffers what appears to be a breakdown and begins worshipping the dying servant as the Hindu god Vishnu. When neighbors find Mr. Jalal sleeping beside the houseboy on the stairs, they blame him for every problem plaguing their building. The residents' anger builds toward a frenzied climax while Vishnu hovers between life and death, becoming an unlikely catalyst for the community's deepest tensions about religion, class, and belonging in modern India.
Genres: fiction, literary-fiction, 20th-century, contemporary, social-issues, 21st-century
Vibes: atmospheric, emotional, thought-provoking
Tropes: ensemble-cast, social-commentary
Setting: Bombay, India
Period: 20th-century, 21st-century
301 pages · Paperback · Harper Perennial
Content warnings: death