Description
Book SynopsisA brave new life lies ahead for Ravi Kumar Mehra! He's 23, educated, good-looking - a real Star of India. What can possibly stand in his way? The Mother Country is a hostile place. But the kindness of strangers helps Ravi to walk tall - and after six days of sleeping rough, his luck changes, for the Indian Magic curry house is recruiting for a dishwasher ...When Ravi falls in love - deeply and forever - life takes a more dangerous turn. For the girl in question is the English Rose next door, and her father is unhinged. Anything could happen.
Trade Review'I am absolutely bowled over by this novel. Balraj Khanna has written a novel that is funny, beautiful and heartrending. It tells the story of Ravi Kumar Mehra who comes to England from India for the dreadful winter of 1962 with an MA but has to work in an Indian restaurant. He is a wonderful creation and his adventures are as hilarious as they are fresh, yet always in the shadows Khanna is holding up a mirror which reflects a declining England, a country on the wane, mired in its own history. The prose is spare and sparkles on the page as one might expect from a man included in the hundred top novelists of the 20th century. There is the energy of the subcontinent and the new India in this book and Khanna delivers all this with the wisdom of a Naipaul, the dexterity of Vikram Seth and the honesty and observation of Zadie Smith.'(Paul Pickering) 'The young Mehra's story reminds one of Tom Jones and Lucky Jim. Brilliant!' (Reginald Massey) 'A thoroughly recommended read.'(Jim Bidwell)
