The Light at the End of the World: A Novel - Siddhartha Deb

"A work of genius—impassioned, singular, hallucinatory, uncanny—Siddhartha Deb has invented a new kind of subcontinental novel." — Karan Mahajan, author of The Association of Small BombsConnecting India’s tumultuous 19th and 20th centuries to its distant past and a potentially apocalyptic future, The Light at the End of the World is a sweeping, kaleidoscopic epic of rebellion, hidden histories, and systemic corruption. Siddhartha Deb's first novel in fifteen years is a mind-bending masterwork that expands the boundaries of contemporary fiction.The narrative unfolds like an intricate puzzle box across four distinct timelines:Delhi, the Near Future: Bibi, a disillusioned former journalist working for a shadowy global consulting firm, is tasked with tracking down a missing ex-colleague. Her search uncovers a terrifying trove of government secrets, including engineered viruses and mysterious relicsBhopal, 1984: A cold-blooded assassin stalks his prey through the city's labyrinthine slums, just days before the occurrence of the worst industrial disaster in world history.Calcutta, 1947: On the brink of Partition, a conscientious veterinary student finds his life and sanity deeply entangled with a secret committee trying to build an ancient Vedic aircraft.India, 1859: In the bloody aftermath of the Indian Rebellion, a British soldier on a quest to hunt down a legendary fugitive is waylaid at a displaced Mughal's bewitching estate.Bound together by overlapping traumas, spirits, automatons, and the haunting presence of the "Monkey Man," these timelines create a phantasmagoric pilgrimage through time and space. Spiked with elements of magical realism, sci-fi noir, and political satire, Deb’s magnificent prose unearths the coverups of official history to shine a light on the fractured realities of modern India