Review
'If the Man Booker Prize ran to form, we could begin to draw up the shortlist for 2009... The Immortals?' --Boyd Tonkin, The Independent
Review
'Asian fiction continues to make a big splash; Amit Chaudhuri's The Immortals is a tale of three Indian musicians.'
Review
'Chaudhuri's fifth novel follows the paths of three musicians and examines the complicated relationship between music and money.'
Product Description
A meditation on the refrains and relationships that define our lives
Book Description
Shyamji has music in his blood, for his father was the acclaimed 'heavenly singer' and guru, Ram Lal. But Shyam Lal is not his father, and knows he never will be. Mallika Sengupta's voice could have made her famous, but being the wife of a successful businessman is a full-time occupation in itself. Mallika's son, Nirmalya, believes in suffering for his art, and for him, all compromise is failure: those with talent should be true to that talent. No matter what. Written in haunting, melodic prose, The Immortals tells the story -- or stories -- of Shyam, Mallika and Nirmalya: their relationships, their lives, their music. More than that, though, it is also the story of music itself, of music as art, and an exploration of its place in the modern world of money and commerce. 'Among the literary voices from India to have made themselves heard in this country over the past ten years, Amit Chaudhuri's is one of the most immpressive: beautifully balanced, affecting, truthful' Sunday Telegraph
About the Author
Amit Chaudhuri was born in Calcutta in 1962 and brought up in Bombay. He is a graduate of University College, London, was at Balliol College and later, as Creative Arts Fellow, at Wolfson College, Oxford. A Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, he has published four previous novels, and a collection of short stories, and his work has appeared in various publications, including the London Review of Books, the Times Literary Supplement, Granta and the New Yorker. Winner of the Betty Trask Award, the Commonwealth Writers Prize for Best First Book, the Encore Award for Best Second Novel and the LA Times Book Prize for Fiction, he lives in Calcutta with his wife and daughter.
