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Beggar’s Bedlam

By Nabarun Bhattacharya
Series: The India List
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Brief Description
A hilarious and absurdist take on the political landscape of West Bengal, India. Beggar's Bedlam is a surreal novel that unleashes the chaos of the carnival on the familiar. Part literary descendant of Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita and part a reconstruction of lost Bengali history,... Read More
Format: Hardback
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A hilarious and absurdist take on the political landscape of West Bengal, India.

Beggar's Bedlam is a surreal novel that unleashes the chaos of the carnival on the familiar. Part literary descendant of Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita and part a reconstruction of lost Bengali history, Nabarun Bhattacharya's masterpiece is a jubilant, fizzing wire of subaltern anarchy and insurrection.

Marshall Bhodi Sarkar and his lieutenant Sarkhel surreptitiously dig on the banks of the Ganges River looking for crude oil reserves. Instead, they unearth curved daggers, rusty broadswords, and a Portuguese cannon. Bhodi is an occasional military man and the lead sorcerer of the secret black-magic sect named Choktar. He joins forces with the flying Flaperoos—men with a predilection for alcohol and petty vandalism—to declare outright war against the Marxist–Leninist West Bengal government.

In a bloodless revolution that is fascinating in its utter implausibility, a motley crew of yet more implausible characters come together in a magic-realist fictional remapping of Calcutta.

Series: The India List

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    A hilarious and absurdist take on the political landscape of West Bengal, India. Beggar's Bedlam is a surreal novel that unleashes the chaos of the carnival on the familiar. Part literary descendant of Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita and part a reconstruction of lost Bengali history, Nabarun Bhattacharya's masterpiece is a jubilant, fizzing wire of subaltern anarchy and insurrection. Marshall...
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Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9781803093789

Publisher: Seagull Books London Ltd

Format: Hardback

Date Published: 13 December 2024

Country: United Kingdom

Imprint: Seagull Books London Ltd

Contributors:

  • Translated by Rijula Das

Audience: General / adult

DIMENSIONS

Spine width: 25.0mm

Width: 152.0mm

Height: 229.0mm

Weight: 626g

Pages: 184

Collections

Fiction General Fiction Literary Fiction Nabarun Bhattacharya Series: The India List

About the Author

Nabarun Bhattacharya (1948–2014) was a prominent Bengali writer who enjoyed cult following in his lifetime and beyond. A journalist from 1973 to 1991 at a foreign news agency, he gave up that career to become a full-time writer. Novelist and short-story writer, he was also a prolific poet. Rijula Das is a novelist and translator. Her work has been translated into French, Russian and German.

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