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Fiction > Modern & contemporary fiction

Helium (Paperback)

Jaspreet Singh (author)

£8.99

Paperback 304 Pages / Published: 08/05/2014

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Synopsis

On November 1st 1984, a day after the assassination of Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, a nineteen-year-old student travels back from a class trip with his mentor and chemistry teacher, Professor Singh. As the group disembark at Delhi station a mob surrounds the professor, douses him in petrol and sets him alight. Years later the student, Raj, is compelled to find his professor's widow, the beautiful Nelly. As the two walk through the misty mountains of Shimla, Nelly comes up against a nation in denial and Raj faces the truth about his father's role in the terrible pogrom against the Sikhs.

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
ISBN: 9781408833872
Number of pages: 304
Weight: 256 g
Dimensions: 198 x 129 mm

MEDIA REVIEWS

A compelling insight into the cruel and complex world of India's recent internecine struggles ... A wonderfully well-woven tale that shines a light on fascinating and appalling events * Michael Palin, Observer Books of the Year *
This is a beautifully written exploration of fathers and sons ... Terrific * Kate Saunders, The Times *
This ambitious second novel is ... bold and courageous ... [A] disturbing, heartfelt work * Eileen Battersby, Irish Times *
A powerful meditation on historic forgetting * Financial Times *
Singh's prose is capable of moments of great power ... Thought-provoking * Independent on Sunday *
The influence of Primo Levi and WG Sebald is strong in this richly intertextual novel ... Singh's background as a scientist is apparent in the beautifully deployed scientific imagery: the past is like "drops of helium" that "refuse to disappear" * Observer *