Between the Assassinations by Aravind Adiga

This is another in what seems to me to be a real Indian genre of books: gritty, heartbreaking, wryly amusing, beautifully crafted. It’s a collection of wonderful portraits of people living in a fictional Indian city. It’s grim but very, very human. These young Indian writers have never heard of Hollywood endings and while that’s great and, refreshingly, you never know what’s going to happen, you need to be feeling a bit stoic to get through the sadness of these people’s lives. The characters and their stories have such an extremely authentic feel about them – a middle aged Communist, a struggling coolie, child beggars, an idealistic newspaper editor … the people of real life. Together they build up a fascinating picture of life in modern India. 4 stars.