Am I a day late and a dollar short on picking out November’s Book of the Month Club? Absolutely, and I apologize profusely for that. Even worse, I’m posting it on a Saturday, where many of the people that would really want to see it probably won’t, but I thought the sooner the better…
Anyway, I’ll keep this brief given the timing. November’s pick needed to be about families, but in the most interesting and perhaps devious way possible. And I think Aravind Adiga’s staggering accomplishment (his second novel after the equally good White Tiger) is that.
It’s all centered around a building in Mumbai, India, where a close-knit community of working-poor families have lived together for decades. The novel’s protagonist is a proud, stubborn widower whose chief loves in life are teaching math (he’s retired but still works with kids in the building) and the families he has gotten to know very well over the years. All of this is put into turmoil when a shady real estate developer (in Mumbai, the line between businessman and criminal is only a bribe away) shows up and offers to buy out the residents in the building.
He wants to build a gleaming, modern high-rise in place of the cozy but dated building, a symbol of the changing face of the new India. The only problem is thatĀ allĀ of the residents of the current building have to consent to sell their current residencies, and the main hold-out is, you guessed it, the “incorruptible” math teacher.
Soon, longtime neighbors and friends become spies and manipulators, as the other residents desperately try to convince (or coerce) the few holdouts who don’t want to sell. This book starts off slow, but that’s only softening us for the kill, as it gets rapidly more tense and layered throughout. By the time you get to the book’s shattering, unforgettable conclusion, you’ll be glad you gave this book a chance.