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Posted on 19 September 2012
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The Story of My Assassins by Tarun J. Tejpal
"Clever.. inventive.. In the profoundest way, Tarun Tejpal writes for India." -V.S. Naipaul, winner of the Nobel Prize for literature
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Photo: Shailendra Pandey |
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BASED ON ACTUAL EVENTS, The Story of My Assassins tells the story of a journalist who learns that the police have captured five hitmen on their way to kill him. Landing like a bombshell on his comfortable life, just as he's started a steamy affair with a brilliant woman, the news prompts him to launch an urgent investigation into the lives of his aspiring murderers-- a ragtag group of street thugs and village waifs-- and their mastermind. Who wanted him dead, and why?
But the investigation forces him to re-examine his own life, too-- to confront his own notion of himself, his job, and his treatment of the women in his life, as well as his own complex feelings about the country that crafted his would-be killers.
Part thriller and part erotic romance, full of dark humor and knife-edged suspense, The Story of My Assassins is a piercing literary novel that takes us from the lavish, hedonistic palaces of India's elite to its seediest slums. It is a novel of corruption, passion, power, and ambition; of extreme poverty and obscene wealth.
It is an awesome adventure into the heart of today's India.
"Deeply humane, raucously funny, dizzy with social and psychological insight! A masterful account of 21st-century ambition, inequality, and power from one of India's most fearless writers."
- Katherine Boo, Author of Behind The Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death And Hope In A Mumbai Undercity
"One of the most attractive Indian writers in English of his generation." -
The Times Literary Supplement
"Overlooked in the general rush to adore The White Tiger and Slumdog Millionaire.... with a much richer understanding of the politics of poverty, [The Story of My Assassins] deserves wider attention."
- Hari Kunzru, Author of Gods Without Men, In The Guardian's "Book of the year"
"Combining a fierce political imagination with a tender solicitude for the losers of history, it sets a new and formidably high standard in Indian writing in English."
- Pankaj Mishra, Author of From The Ruins of Empire
"For the awesome story it tells and the stunning impact of its prose this is, quite simply, the best Indian novel in English I have ever read."
- Nayantara Sahgal, Author of Rich Like Us
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Reviews
"The Story of My Assassins is a dark, brutal, and yet often funny narration by a journalist of an attempt on his life...The result is a meditation, a commentary, on the convoluted venality of modern India."
- Dilip D’Souza, The Daily Beast Read the full review here >
"A gripping exploration of the country's underworld...leaves us mulling over the gnarled and
vibrant tapestry of modern-day India."
- Maddie Oatman, Mother Jones Read the full review here >
"Tarun J. Tejpal is brilliant. A master storyteller, he writes with graphic detail so stunning in spots as to make the reader pause for breath."
- Diane Brandley, New York Journal of Books Read the full review here >
"His novel is a stylish, erudite potboiler that reads like a mix of Alexandre Dumas and India's ancient national epic, the Mahabharata."
- Sam Sacks, The Wall Street Journal Read the full review here > |
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Book Tour: Unites States of America and United Kingdom
United States of America
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Date |
Time |
Event |
Public/Private |
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Monday, 1.10.2012 |
6.30-7.30 pm |
Reading, Q&A, book signing Photonics Center. Boston University, 9th Floor, 8 Saint Mary's Street Boston, MA, 02215-1204 |
Public |
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Tuesday, 2.10.2012 |
7 pm |
Book signing, Tarun J. Tejpal in conversation with Edward Luce of The Financial Times
Politics, Prose and Bookstores: 5015 Connecticut Ave. NW Washington, DC 20016 202.364.1919 |
Public |
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Wednesday, 3.10.2012 |
7.00-8.30 pm |
Q & A, signing, with interlocutor TBA at Strand Bookstore, co-sponsored by the Asian American Writers Workshop 828 Broadway New York, NY 10003-4805 |
Public |
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Thursday, 4.10.2012 |
6.30-8.30 pm |
Q&A, signing, with interlocutor TBA at Asia Society
Co-sponsored by SAJA (South Asian Journalists Association) 725 Park Avenue (at 70th Street) New York City |
Ticketed public event |
United Kingdom
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Date |
Time |
Event |
Public/Private |
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Monday, 24.9.2012 |
2 pm |
Turnaround Sales Conference, book presentation to Sales Reps & book signing |
Private |
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6.30 pm |
Book reading and discussion chaired by Claire Fox at Foyles Charing Cross Road, WC2H 0EB |
Free for public |
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Tuesday, 25.9.2012 |
7.00 pm |
Discussion on Tarun’s career as an investigative journalist. Chaired by BBC World's South Asia Editor Shahzeb Jillani.
The Frontline Club, Norfolk Place, W2 1QJ – |
Public, £12.00 to attend |
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Thursday, 27.9.2012 |
7.00 pm |
Book launch Blackwell’s Oxford – the event details are at: www.broadconversation.com |
Public, £3.00 to attend |
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Friday, 28.9.2012 |
12.30-2.00 pm |
Tarun J. Tejpal in conversation with Ian Jack.
India Institute at King’s College London. |
Public. First come, first serve basis |
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