by Will Self
First published 2013
Subhash and Udayan Mitra grow up inseparable in 1960s Calcutta, born fifteen months apart and often mistaken for each other. The brothers could not be more different. Udayan, charismatic and impulsive, joins the Naxalite rebellion fighting to eliminate poverty and inequality. He risks everything for his political beliefs. Subhash, the dutiful son, feels no such passion for revolution. He leaves India to pursue scientific research on the quiet American coast. When Subhash discovers what happened to his brother in the lowland near their family home, he returns to India. He tries to rebuild their shattered family and heal the damage Udayan caused, including the wounds left in his brother's wife. The story spans generations and continents, following how one brother's choices echo through time and across an ocean.
Genres: literary-fiction, historical-fiction, 20th-century, 21st-century, family-drama
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: enemies-to-lovers, found-family
Setting: Calcutta, India, United States
Period: 1960s
ebook · Bloomsbury