Obedient Father

Book : McNally Editions

by Akhil Sharma

Genres: Literary Fiction

Synopsis

Revised and featuring a new foreward by the author, this uncompromising novel returns, more powerful than ever: "A portrait of a country ravaged by vendetta and graft, its public spaces loud with the complaints of religious bigots and its private spaces cradling unspeakable pain." (Hilary Mantel, New York Review of Books)

An Obedient Father introduced one of the most admired voices in contemporary fiction. Set in Delhi in the 1990s, it tells the story of an inept bureaucrat mired in corruption, as well as of the daughter he abused as a child, who must now speak out against him. Decried in India for its frank treatment of incest, the novel was praised elsewhere for its compassion, and for a plot that mingled the domestic with the political, tragedy with farce. Yet, as Akhil Sharma writes in his foreword to this new edition, he was haunted by what he considered serious failures within the work: almost twenty years later, he returned to face them. Here is the result, a leaner, surer version with even greater power.

Release date: June 1, 2000

Publisher: McNally Editions

Print pages: 256