Deepti Kapoor

19 and a half hours of audio. Holey moley! Why did I ever take that on?
Waaay too long a story. A promising start, in an unfamiliar setting (India) with characters totally outside my sheltered world view. However, by the half-way point, I was becoming confused with the shifting time narratives told from different characters’ perspectives (possibly not so confusing if I could see chapters, or flick back to clarify the story). Confusion then led to not caring much about the resolution.
The narrator used different voices for the characters (always good) but I remained irritated throughout not only by the excessive use of the word “says”, but by the narrator mispronouncing it as “saze”.… (more)

I bought this book solely on the review in WaPo (Washington Post), which called it a "masterpiece." That is not a word that is used very often in book reviews. So I was very excited to get my hands on this one. This was my BOTM selection for February and I dove right into it upon its arrival. It started off on a promising note, but quickly died a slow death after about page 125. The first 125 pages deal with the Ajay, the main character in the novel. It follows his upbringing and eventually his meeting with Sunny, a notorious criminal, whose father is a truly horrible and dangerous man, feared by almost everyone in India.

Then it begins its slow decline into boring, tedious storytelling. The author feels it necessary to follow the story of a newspaper reporter who gets romantically and professionally involved with Sunny. I can understand how one wants to bring in a new character, so she can have a relationship with Sunny. This will demonstrate that Sunny is more than just a bad guy. I get that. But the author finds it necessary to drone on and on and on about these two for over 150 pages without another mention of the main character, Ajay. It was if I was reading two different books. One a romance, and one a crime novel. BTW - I hate romance books. Not a good sign.

What started out like a Don Winslow crime novel, turned into a boring story that lost its way. I lost all interest in all the characters, especially the news reporter. Eventually, I gave up. What a shame. Sometimes, the thought of the vacation is actually better than the vacation itself. That is how I describe this book. The promise was there, it simply failed to deliver.… (more)

This is a long book set in India in the early 2000s. Ajay as a child witnessed the death of his father, followed by being sold into servitude. Eventually he was recognized as a loyal hard worker and came to be employed by Sunny Wadia, the son of a powerful, corrupt businessman. As a valued Wadia employee, he came to be part of an enviable lifestyle. One of his duties to Sunny was transporting Neda, a journalist, to wherever Sunny was.

A car crash with fatalities upends their lives in unimagined ways with Ajay at the epicenter of prison violence and treachery. Ajay continues to search for his mother and sister who were left behind when he was sold. There is heartbreak in his search.

This is a novel of organized crime in India and also a family saga. India is seen as a multi-layered country with pockets of great poverty and families with generations of wealth and status.… (more)