Review by Booklist Review
Nominated for the Man Booker Prize for The Lives of Others (2014), Mukherjee (A State of Freedom, 2018) explores themes of class, sexuality, and postcolonial India. Here, in three novella-like sections loosely linked in plot but tightly linked in theme, he showcases his ability to inhabit different perspectives. The first section features the fraying life of Ayush, a publisher, who, troubled by his comfortable London life, decides to reduce his carbon footprint but acts thoughtlessly regarding the impact on his academic economist husband and their children. The second section is one of the stories Ayush edits by a mysterious writer, M. N. Opie, in which an English professor makes questionable choices after a traumatic event. The final section moves to the West Bengal--Bangladesh border, depicting the strife experienced by a desperately poor family when researchers give them a cow. Each tale explores how some lives are seemingly predetermined, in particular, how lives are often defined by the economic realities of where a person is born. Probing and ambitious, this is an engaging work from a fabulously gifted writer.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Mukherjee (The Lives of Others) offers a diffuse novel in three parts, each tangentially linked by their protagonists' negotiation of moral quandaries. The first section portrays London book editor Ayush as his depression pushes him toward a mental breakdown. He shows his five-year-old twins a video of pigs being slaughtered in lieu of a bedtime story, having gotten the idea they should know where meat comes from. The second section comprises a story by one of Ayush's authors, about a bored academic named Emily, whose London ride share driver gets in an accident. The details are fuzzy to Emily, but she's concerned she was involved in a hit-and-run. She tracks down the driver, but after learning he's an Eritrean refugee, she has second thoughts about reporting the incident. The third section, set in rural India, is based on an anecdote Anush hears at a party about the gift of a cow to a poor family, which inadvertently sets into motion a series of events that leaves the family in ruin. Rote ruminations about the shortcomings of contemporary publishing and academia bog things down, and while Mukherjee exhaustively explores the gray areas inhabited by his characters, the three narratives don't quite hang together. This doesn't reach the heights of the author's previous work. (Apr.)
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Review by Library Journal Review
Mukherjee's (A State of Freedom) latest novel challenges listeners with three interlinked stories (each with a different narrator) about people constrained by postcolonial neoliberalism yet still seeking individual agency. Publisher Ayush chafes against the profits-over-art mindset at his small literary press in London and starts an ideological tug-of-war with his economist husband over their twins' upbringing. Narrator Antonio Aakeel's crisp, clear enunciation and reflective tone embody Ayush's education and idealism; his enhancement of Ayush's idiosyncrasies stays with listeners, through hand-offs to two additional skilled narrators. In Part II, Sofia Engstrand's performance of an anonymously authored short story from a collection Ayush publishes is engrossing but contains some noticeable splices. Engstrand employs class-distinct accents as a niche scholar whose career takes a turn after an accident causes her to question the choices available to her. In Part III, Shaheen Khan narrates with escalating anger and confusion as a cow gifted to a mother in rural India (a donation meant to generate wealth for her family) forces her to make drastic accommodations. The economic experiment relates back to a colleague of Ayush's husband, a pointed critique of free-market altruism and global connectedness. VERDICT Poignant, thoughtful, and tough, this literary novel makes an impact.--Lauren Kage
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
Intractable dilemmas challenge the very existence of several principal characters in Mukherjee's new novel. Divided into three connected parts, the book contrasts the consciences of socially aware European professionals with the survival struggles of African refugees and the very poorest of Indian villagers. Part 1 focuses on a London-based gay couple, Ayush and Luke, parents to Masha and Sasha. Luke, the higher earner of the pair, is an economist with the credo: "Economics is life, life is economics." When not doing the lion's share of parenting, Ayush works in publishing, editing books on diversity issues. A new author has recently joined his list but refuses to divulge more than the teasing name M.N. Opie. Tortured by capitalism's distortion of everything, from farming to the climate, Ayush becomes increasingly unhinged. Part 2 features one of Opie's stories, another clash between literature and economics. Emily, a middle-class English academic, is concussed after her taxi is involved in a hit-and-run. Confused and nauseated, Emily reaches out to the driver, Salim, and finds herself pulled into his world. And finally, Part 3, perhaps the work of one of Luke's economist colleagues, sees a shift to India, where an impoverished family struggles to take advantage of the gift of a cow, only to discover this supposed opportunity to improve their finances brings additional, impossible burdens. Mukherjee puts his piercing intelligence and fine technique to the service of urgent issues and gargantuan choices, in a world where simple solutions are rarely available. This novel is more directly confrontational than his earlier books, and a challenge to the reader. A determinedly provocative work of fiction--passionate, graphic, and uncomfortable. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
