This summer 2020 novel had a beautiful cover and fairly jumped off the shelf at me at Circle City Books in Pittsboro, so I snapped it up for a cool $10. I think I must have seen a review of it somewhere, because her name was familiar, though it's her debut effort. On the one hand, I'm glad I didn't the full cover price, whatever it was, $20 or so. On the other, it was worth what I paid for it.
Majumdar, a native of Kolkata who went to Harvard and then Johns Hopkins, plants her book midway between the gloss of New Yorkerland and -- in her effort to hew to the varying stylistic registers her three overlapping protagonists, who come from different strata of Indian society -- something a good deal fresher.
It builds slowly, then accelerates, in its tale of one character falling as a sacrifice to a collective need for vengeance, while two others rise. Throughout, she meditates on the destructive power of masses, whether brought together by new means (social media) or old (physical crowds), and on the difficulty of maintaining ideals while trying to first survive, then thrive.
Upon reflection, it would probably have been worth paying retail for it. I'll keep an eye out for her.
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