Book description
The Impressionist
is Hari Kunzru's sweeping novel of India, empire and identity.
In India, at the birth of the last century, an infant is brought
howling into the world, his remarkable paleness marking him out from
his brown-skinned fellows. Revered at first, he is later cast out from
his wealthy home when his true parentage is revealed. So begins Pran
Nath's odyssey of self-discovery - a journey that will take him from
the streets of Agra, via the red light district of Bombay, to the
brick cloisters of Oxford and beyond - as he struggles to understand
who he really is.
'Delectable, sweeping, empire-savaging, audaciously playful . . .
Kunzru writes with wry certitude and cinematic precision'The New
York Times
'Grand, sprawling, extravagant, lyrical . . . A work so vibrant and
richly imagined that you can smell the incense'Esquire
'Epic in scale and rich in historical detail . . . the narrative is
deft and swift . . . carrying the reader along effortlessly. This
first novel has startling depth, ambition and craftmanship'Time Out
Hari Kunzru is the author of the novels The Impressionist,
Transmission, My Revolutions and Gods Without
Men, and the story collection Noise. He lives in New York.
Hari Kunzru is the author of
The Impressionist
,
Transmission
and the short story collection
Noise
, and was named one of Granta's Best of Young British Novelists in 2003
.
He is a contributing editor of
Mute
magazine and sits on the executive council of English PEN. He lives in
East London.
