The Lives of Others
AuthorNeel Mukherjee
CountryIndia
LanguageEnglish
PublisherChatto & Windus (UK); W. W. Norton (US)
Publication date
22 May 2014 (UK); 1 October 2014 (US)
Media typePrint (Hardback)
Pages528 pp (UK hardback edition)
ISBN978-0-7011-8629-6

The Lives of Others is a novel by Neel Mukherjee. It was published in 2014 by Chatto & Windus in the UK and W. W. Norton & Company in the US. The novel, the author's second one, was shortlisted for the 2014 Man Booker Prize on 9 September 2014.[1] Bookbinder Tom McEwan was commissioned to make a custom binding for the book at the ceremony at the Guildhall.[2]

The novel is set in Calcutta (Kolkata) in the 1960s and follows a wealthy business family, one of whose members gets involved in extremist political activism. The book deals with the chasm between generations, and is set against a backdrop in which the gulf between the poor and the wealthy has never been wider.[3]

Writing

The novel is split into two interlacing narratives, typeset in different fonts. One is an epistolary account of a violent agrarian movement through the eyes of Ghosh family scion Supratik, who has left his home to mobilise the oppressed peasants against corrupt moneylenders and landlords. The other is a third-person account around the Ghosh family,[4] which forms the bulk of the book.[5] The story touches briefly on notable moments of the city's history such as the Bengal famine of 1943, the Great Calcutta Killings of 1946, and the Partition of India. Most of the action takes place in the years 1968–72.[6]

Like many other Indian novels in English, the text includes Bengali words and phrases. A family tree and a guide to Bengali relational terms is provided.[7]

The tension between classes is at the core of the novel.[8] The Statesman described the book to have a neo-orientalist agenda.[9]

Reviews

The Lives of Others was favourably reviewed by novelists including Amitav Ghosh, A S Byatt, Anita Desai and Patrick Flanery.[9]

Critics praised the novel's intricate and detailed portrayal of middle-class Bengali life during the period.[9][6] In a glowing review for The Guardian, A S Byatt complimented the author's capacity to imagine the lives of others.[10]

Reviewing for The Independent, Patrick Gale noted the author's taste for violent contrasts and narratives within narratives.[7] The New York Times likened Mukherjee with Tolstoy in his ability "to bring to life a diverse and expansive set of characters and to sharply evoke their interior worlds."[5] For The New York Review of Books, Anita Desai noted the eye for detail, as in Victorian novel, and in terms of theme, compared the book with Rabindranath Tagore's 1915 novel The Home and the World which depicts an altruistic aristocrat along with a villainous revolutionary.[11] Reviewing for The Telegraph, Patrick Flanery wrote favourably of the well-observed and psychologically nuanced scenes of collective family.[12] Il Sole 24 Ore likened the novel to Buddenbrooks (1901).[13]

In 2020, The Independent's Emma Lee-Potter listed The Lives of Others as one of the 12 best Indian novels.[14]

Awards and honours

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Neel Mukherjee shortlisted for 2014 Man Booker prize". The Times of India. Retrieved 23 September 2014.
  2. ↑ "Designer bindings of Man Booker shortlist on display at Waterstones, Piccadilly | the Man Booker Prizes". Archived from the original on 19 December 2014. Retrieved 19 December 2014., "Designer bindings of Man Booker shortlist on display at Waterstones, Piccadilly". Retrieved on 19 December 2014.
  3. ↑ "The Lives of Others". 2014 Man Booker Prize. Retrieved 23 September 2014.
  4. ↑ Lal, Nandini (13 October 2014). "Book review: 'The Lives of Others,' by Neel Mukherjee". The Washington Post.
  5. 1 2 Sawhney, Hirsh (26 December 2014). "'The Lives of Others,' by Neel Mukherjee". The New York Times.
  6. 1 2 Ghosh, Amitav (3 May 2014). "Neel Mukherjee's THE LIVES OF OTHERS: a review".
  7. 1 2 Patrick Gale (15 May 2014). "The Lives of Others by Neel Mukherjee, book review: A departure from the comfy Indian novel that both shocks and impresses". The Independent. Archived from the original on 18 June 2022.
  8. ↑ Beretta, Carlotta Maria (2 April 2019). "Righting the Subalterns? Neel Mukherjee's The Lives of Others and the Naxalite Movement". Indialogs. 6: 65. doi:10.5565/rev/indialogs.130. ISSN 2339-8523.
  9. 1 2 3 Somdatta Mandal (27 September 2015). "The neo-orientalist agenda". The Statesman.
  10. ↑ Byatt, A. S. (14 May 2014). "The Lives of Others by Neel Mukherjee review – Marxism and tradition in 1960s India". The Guardian.
  11. ↑ Desai, Anita (22 October 2015). "The Real India". The New York Review of Books.
  12. ↑ Flanery, Patrick (14 October 2014). "The Lives of Others by Neel Mukherjee, review: 'masterful'". The Telegraph.
  13. ↑ Sampietro, Luigi (11 November 2016). "Ridere per disperazione a Calcutta". Il Sole 24 Ore (in Italian).
  14. ↑ Lee-Potter, Emma (5 August 2020). "12 best Indian novels that everyone needs to read". The Independent. Retrieved 23 December 2020.
  15. ↑ "2014 Winner". Encore Award. 19 June 2014. Archived from the original on 21 January 2016. Retrieved 19 June 2014.
  16. ↑ "DSC Prize 2016 Finalists". 26 November 2015. Retrieved 28 November 2015.
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