Description
About the Author
Aatish Taseer was born in 1980. He is the author of the memoir Stranger to History: A Son's Journey Through Islamic Lands and three acclaimed novels: The Way Things Were, a finalist for the 2016 Jan Michalski Prize; The Temple-Goers, which was short-listed for the Costa First Novel Award; and Noon. His work has been translated into more than a dozen languages. He is a contributing writer for The International New York Times and lives in New Delhi and New York.
Reviews
'A detailed, learned and highly readable tour of Hindu history . . . [and] a sharp-eyed condemnation of the evils of Hindu nationalism and caste.'
'Taseer is interested in the Brahmins of the city, but he is also interested in himself, how he came to be in this part of the world or that, how he arrives at certain conclusions.' * Times Literary Supplement *
[The Twice-Born] doesn't sit squarely in the camp of memoir, travelogue, or long-form reportage. It hovers among the three but with such lilting grace as to make that limbo feel like a lovely hybrid . . . Taseer grew up in cosmopolitan, postcolonial New Delhi but has spent much of his adult life in the U.S. and Europe. The result is an alienation from the India he considers both his homeland and a foreign land . . . [The Twice-Born is] a poetic quest to bridge that gap or at least better understand it.'
'[A]n excellent, revelatory, provocative book' -- Hanya Yanagihara
'Taseer sets [his] meditations against a gorgeous, sinister portrait of Benares . . . [His] wonderfully atmospheric rendition of landscapes and gnarled social psychologies make for an engrossing dissection of India's discontents.' -- Publishers Weekly
'I love Aatish Taseer's writing: his introspection, his lucid and supple prose, his sensitivity to the interplay of tradition and modernity, East and West, old and new India. "The Twice-Born" is a poignant reflection on identity, change and politics on the banks of the Ganges. A moving and thought-provoking read.' -- Shashi Tharoor MP, author of 'Inglorious Empire' and 'Why I Am a Hindu'
'The writing has a lyrical quality that makes you want to wander the streets of [Benares] once more. ... 'The Twice-Born' makes the reader think about religion, caste, culture and the idea of modernity, and most rewardingly, about where she stands in relation to all of these.' * Hindustan Times *
'The most rewarding [book] written by a contemporary writer on the perpetually romanced-and sacred-geography of India. ... Every encounter here is a story fo wonderment and disillusionment ... 'The Twice-Born' ... carries the most elegant sentences written about India by a writer of our time' * Open magazine *
'Taseer writes like he always does, relentlessly, intensely, sometimes unkindly, in a complex way, raising questions with a deep intelligence that disturbs more than it quietens.' -- The Telegraph, Calcutta
Book Information
ISBN 9781787381193
Author Aatish Taseer
Format Hardback
Page Count 344
Imprint C Hurst & Co Publishers Ltd
Publisher C Hurst & Co Publishers Ltd