Seven Sixes Are Forty-Three A Novel
Kiran Nagarkar has the touch of genius. In my opinion, he is amongst the best Indian writers of English fiction of our times... ~Khushwant Singh Between the I and you of this story lies a haunting tale of love, loss and yearning, of personal and human suffering, told with Nagarkar s trademark sensuality, wit and irony. This is a work of genius that confirms Nagarkar s as the most significant voice in Indian fiction. ~Nayantara Sahgal It s good to see an old friend in a new avatar; this novel by Kiran Nagarkar is everything a first novel should be: ambitious, experimental and powerful. Just don t trust the mathematics. ~Jerry Pinto The first slap on your bottom as you come into the world tells you that your days of mollycoddling are over. The sooner you understand that, the better you are prepared for the pain and the unhappiness. Young and nihilistic, Kushank Purandare is a writer living off the generosity of friends and lovers. There is the ex-flame Aaroti, who is now another man s wife and whom he refuses to pity; Mrs Reghla alias Kaku who has gouged her eyes out; old Kathavte who lives upstairs and beats his daughters; Raghu whom he accompanies to a famine-struck village where gangsters rule the roost. Disillusioned with the lack of certainty and empathy in a world that is largely incoherent and unsalvageable, Kushank drifts about wallowing in his past and doing odd jobs. Written in Marathi, Kiran Nagarkar s first book, Saat Sakkam Trechalis is considered a landmark in post-Independence Indian literature. Its wry stream of consciousness and volatile prose made many a critic and reader uneasy when it was first published in 1974. Republished with absorbing pieces that place the novel in the literature of its time, this new edition will introduce the brilliance of Kiran Nagarkar to a new generation of readers.