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The Immortals

By Chaudhuri, Amit

Publishers Summary:
The award-winning author of A New World now gives us an incantatory novel—at once plaintive and comic—about the powerful undercurrent of cultural and familial tradition in a society enthralled with the future.Bombay in the 1980s: Shyam Lal is a highly regarded voice teacher, trained by his father in the classical idiom but happily engaged in teaching the more popular songs to well-to-do women, whose modern way of life he covets. Sixteen-year-old Nirmalya Sengupta is the romantically rebellious scion of an affluent family who wants only to study Indian classical music. With a little push from Nirmalya’s mother (Shyam’s prize pupil), Shyam agrees to accept Nirmalya as his student, entering into a relationship that will have unexpected and lasting consequences in both their lives. As the novel unfolds, we see how their two families come to challenge and change each other, and how student and teacher slowly mesh their differing visions of the world, and what place music holds in it. With exquisite sensuous detail, with quiet humor, generosity, and unsentimental poignancy, The Immortals gives us a luminous portrait of the spiritual and emotional force of a revered Indian tradition, of two fundamentally different but intricately intertwined families, and of a society choosing between the old and the new.

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ISBN
978-0-30727-022-1
Publisher
Knopf


REVIEWS

Library Journal

Reviewed on August 25, 2009

In a Bombay, light years removed from the squalor of Slumdog Millionaire, the upwardly mobile Senguptas live in lavish surroundings thanks to the rising fortunes of the patriarch, Apurva. His wife, Mallika, who showed early promise as a classical singer, becomes a student of the renowned musical guru, Shyam Lal, who promises to get her a recording contract. When her son, Nirmalya, also exhibits a gift for music, he, too, falls into Shyam's orbit. Chaudhuri (Freedom Song) sets this work in the 1980s, just as Western musical influences are beginning to assert themselves in classical Indian music. Verdict This meditative musical odyssey will resonate with readers seeking a deeper understanding of Indian culture. Warmly recommended.-Barbara Love, Kingston Frontenac P.L., Ont. Copyright 2009 Media Source Inc. Copyright 2009 Media Source Inc. ...Log In or Sign Up to Read More

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