{"product_id":"railsong-by-rahul-bhattacharya-9781526691729","title":"Railsong","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eMagnificent\u003c\/b\u003e — KAMILA SHAMSIE\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eMajestic yet profoundly tender\u003c\/b\u003e — MEGHA MAJUMDAR\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eA breathtaking novel about a woman forging a life for herself on the railways, \u003cem\u003eRailsong\u003c\/em\u003e is the story of an individual coming of age amid the social and political upheavals of twentieth-century India.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eIn a newly independent India charged with national vigour, Charu, the motherless daughter of a railway worker, pines for freedom from the shackles of her impoverishment and meagre prospects. As diesel engines replace steam and the calamitous churn of drought, famine, and a great strike engulfs her town, Charu dares to imagine a different future for herself. She boards a train and flees westwards, leaving behind the oppressive domesticity of her childhood for the alluring modernity, and apparent opportunities, of Bombay.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eUnfazed by the everyday discriminations around her, she becomes an unlikely hero: a railway woman and census enumerator who keeps her heart open — sometimes guilelessly — to her nation’s vast possibility. Sweeping, elegiac and at times wonderfully comic, \u003cem\u003eRailsong\u003c\/em\u003e is a powerful portrait of grit, optimism, and the force of character that enables one remarkable woman to live on her own terms in a country full of contradictions.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Allen \u0026 Unwin Aotearoa New Zealand","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47548201992428,"sku":"9781526691729","price":44.99,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/d9776118c45df50bef08b7fb84e764d9_d0e90b5d-bdf1-43dc-87ab-78c26224ed97.jpg?v=1776908444","url":"https:\/\/bookhero.co.nz\/products\/railsong-by-rahul-bhattacharya-9781526691729","provider":"Book Hero","version":"1.0","type":"link"}