Between the Assassinations
CBC Books | Posted: July 12, 2018 8:27 PM | Last Updated: July 12, 2018
Aravind Adiga
Welcome to Kittur, India. Of its 193,432 residents, only 89 declare themselves to be without religion or caste. And if the characters in Between the Assassinations are any indication, Kittur is an extraordinary crossroads between the brightest minds and the poorest morals, the up-and-coming and the downtrodden, and the poets and the prophets of an India that modern literature has rarely addressed. (From Simon & Schuster)
From the book
The arches of the railway station frame your first view of Kittur as you arrive as a passenger on the Madras Mail (arrival early morning) or the West Coast Express (arrival afternoon). The station is dim, dirty and littered with discarded lunch bags into which stray dogs poke their noses; in the evening, the rats emerge.
The walls are covered with the image of a jolly, plump, potbellied, and entirely naked man, his genitalia strategically covered by his crossed legs, who floats above a caption in Kannada that says: A SINGLE WORD FROM THIS MAN CAN CHANGE YOUR LIFE. He is the spiritual leader of a local Jain sect that runs a free hospital and lunchroom in the town.
From Between the Assassinations by Aravind Adiga ©2008. Published by Simon & Schuster.