Three stories of corruption and the ugly side of caste system in India. These stories try to show how the marginalized are ignored in a fast growing economy like India. He is the modern Premchand who is not scared of exposing that side of Indian society which most of the Indians ignore or don't want to discuss. Though published 10 years back the topics are still relevant. I loved the first story ‘The walls of Delhi' others were also heart breaking and laced with dark humor.
Only negative in my opinion would be translation part, though Jason Grunebaum has tried to capture the authors intentions well, I felt he was trying to directly translate from Hindi to English which left the text a bit bland and dry. Maybe reading the book in Hindi would have been more enjoyable.
I would rate this 2.5.
Hmm...this book was a disappointment, the book kept on dragging with chapters which didn't make any contribution to the overall story. It started off well but fizzled out at the end. This book can be a good screenplay for a small tv series though. As a book it didn't work out for me.
At last completed reading the book! This book was just okay for me. It was slow and a tough read.
This book is a murder mystery intertwined with the political situations inside the Roman Catholic church. One thing I learned is there were so much infighting within the Catholic church on the basis of theological and philosophical differences. I came to know about Franciscans and Dulcinians.
The last few chapters are my favorites. Though I skipped lots of pages which went describing history and buildings which was irrelevant for me. Overall a well crafted book that brings together history and mystery.