|
|
|
|
| RESPONSE |
|
|
|
"Never
been on such an emotional roller coaster. Thanks for giving
me such a great time. May your efforts continue to be
touched by magic."
Naseerudin Shah |
|
|
Alchemy
is not a literary fiction. It is a force of nature.
It soars above all competition.
Mikel Dunham |
|
|
“Just
finished reading Alchemy… what a masterpiece…
hope you live another story so you can write it.
Anuradha
Mahindra |
|
I
just finished your book and think it’s absolutely
wonderful. Enjoyed every page. It will live with me
for a long, long time…
Prabuddha Dasgupta |
|
Alchemy
has broken new ground without any doubt. The first rankers
of Indian writing Seth, Ghosh and Pankaj will have to
pause awhile
and ponder. Alchemy has pushed them all to the sides I
believe. In its vaulting ambition, in its turning around
of English usage, in the grand swathe that it cuts, in
its endearing candour, in its enthralling prose, in its
understanding of life, in the partaking of larger philosophies,
in going where angels feared to tread, in all that it
is a landmark work.
Binoo K John |
| |
“Just
finished reading your book. Brilliant. Original and
great writing. Lets meet when I get back from Mumbai
next week.”
Ramesh Sharma |
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
| |
|
 |
|
|
|
Synopsis |
| |
| ‘Its
rich sexuality lifts this work away, way above the ordinary. Rare
is the Indian writer in English who has ventured thus far with the
language, force, imagery and originality. Tejpal is audacious as would
be those who venture to assault the Himalayas. There are echoes of
Nabokov, shades of Henry Miller and Philip Roth; and, influences of
Rusdhie and Jim Corbett. None of which diminish the originality of
a novel that is, paradoxically, as exciting as it is a pleasure’
|
|
| THE
TRIBUNE |
| |
| ‘Engaging
and astute: he turns a clear eye on the social and political quirks,
inequalities and contradictions of modern India… a lively and
persistently entertaining novel’ |
|
| LITERARY
REVIEW |
| |
| ‘Tejpal
explores women’s desire with rare intelligence and sensitivity.
The reader, spellbound, is never turned into a voyeur, but is caught
up in this Indian magician’s stunning prose’ |
|
| PSYCHOLOGIES
MAGAZINE |
| |
| ‘In
the first half, the novel is at its strongest when it inscribes the
diurnal rhythms of the narrator’s life: conversations with an
elderly servant over chai, spare bachelor flats in Delhi, whiskey
talk, highway vignettes, the magic unravelling of a (Sikh-Muslim)
marriage. In the second half, it assumes the urgency of a thriller…
Throughout, it reveals Tejpal’s eye for characterisation and
description’ |
|
| GUARDIAN |
| |
| ‘He
has a compassionate eye and an instinctive understanding of the underprivileged,
the simple and the dispossessed. The wretchedness of ordinary people’s
is well caught, the tragedies, the telling detail and the convulsive
changes the subcontinent has suffered over the past 60 years’ |
|
| SPECTATOR |
| |
| ‘The
passion in the novel is deeply organic to the characters and the narrative.
As an attempt to compel readers to look at desire without the crippling
impulse of shame and hypocrisy, it works beautifully’ |
|
| INDEPENDENT |
| |
| ‘A
love story written on the body… In the end, you have nothing
but a story to gain, and this one, in its eroticism and excitement
of ideas, heralds an arrival’ |
|
| INDIA
TODAY |
| |
| ‘The
Alchemy of Desire is a bold book, and at times when you least expect
it, a funny book. Tejpal manages to encompass whole lives, along with
the galaxies of emotion contained therein’ |
|
| REDIFF.COM |
| |
| ‘Throughout
the novel, Tejpal’s sensuous language produces moments of breathtaking
beauty, and he displays a poet’s joy in catching the feel, odour
and appearance of the living world’ |
|
| BIG
ISSUE |
| |
| ‘A
startling work of Nabokovian fiction’ |
|
| HINDU |
| |
| ‘One
of the most attractive Indian writers in English of his generation,
he writes with a great deal of raw energy, inventively employing images
which are at once sad, haunting, horrendously comic and beautiful’ |
|
| TIMES
LITERARY SUPPLEMENT |
| |
| ‘A
bold and weighty first novel. Tejpal is obsessed with the act of creation
in its widest sense. He beats an erotic path through the depths of
human desire: sexual, artistic, political. A memorable and impressive
debut’ |
|
| SUNDAY
TIMES |
| |
| ‘This
Indian masterpiece is like a voyage down the Ganges, long and infinitely
pleasurable; the only thing that worries you is getting to the end
too soon’ |
|
| FIGARO |
| |
| ‘A
lyrical and highly erotic love story’ |
|
| THE
MAIL ON SUNDAY |
| |
| 'At
last - a new and brilliantly original novel from India' |
|
| V.S.
NAIPAUL |
| |
'Those
two journalists, Hemingway and Marquez,
will be proud of their
tribesman Tarun Tejpal' |
|
| PAUL
ZACHARIA |
|
|
