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The Last Song of Dusk

The Last Song of Dusk

by SiddharthDhanvantShanghvi (Author)

  • Used

    Hardcover 2004

    $3.36

  • Used

    Paperback 2004

    $3.36
Synopsis

Set in colonial India, "The Last Song Of Dusk" follows the fortunes of Anuradha, whose fabled beauty is such that the peacocks of Udaipur gather to bid her farewell as she journeys to meet her groom, Vardhmaan, in Bombay. Anuradha's bittersweet story intertwines with that of her cousin Nandini - a seductive orphan with a dark heart, a penchant for panthers and an extraordinary gift for painting - and with the secret history and slow-burning revenge of a house. Written in Technicolour, Bollywood prose, this is a magical piece of storytelling, a novel that pirouettes between laughter and heartbreak, which will appeal to all fans of Joanne Harris, Isabel Allende and Arundhati Roy.

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More Information

Format: Hardcover
 Pages: 304
 Edition: First Edition
 Publisher: W&N
Published: 25 Mar 2004
ISBN 10: 0297847570
ISBN 13: 9780297847571
Book Overview: '[a] colourful first novel...what begins as an erotic fairy tale grows into an exploration of love and loss, sexuality and innocence, friendship and solitude...Shanghvi's loose, poetic style, [is] cut with a dash of magical realism...[and his] story has eloquent insights into the nature of love.' TLS Translation rights have been sold at heated auctions in France (to Entre Deux Terres), Germany (to Rowohlt) and Italy. The novel will be published by Penguin India in April 2004. The author is young, charismatic and exceedingly promotable -- he has been a professional dog exhibitor (!), a chef, and feature writer for 'Elle' India). He has great media connections. The successes of DEATH OF VISHNU and BRICK LANE show that the appetite for novels about India and Indian issues is as strong as ever. And Joanne Harris continues to prove that there is an enormous demand for novels that blend magic and surrealism with tales of love and family.
 Prizes: Winner of Betty Trask Award 2004.

Media Reviews
'Surrealism and magic are mixed with the more everyday traumas of life and love. This is a larger than life story with a definite Bollywood feel to it...The main characters are well drawn, in all their exuberant eccentricity, and their merciless story makes for an adventurous read.' WATERSTONES BOOKS QUARTERLY 'The recent spate of magic-realism novels by writers with one foot in the Raj has been an engaging cultural seam...Shanghvi offers a little something extra... Like Kunzru, Shanghvi places his characters in historically auspicious circumstances, as if the voice of modernity has entered a time machine.' i-D magazine (March 2004) 'this is a modern fairy tale about love and kismet that touches all the senses.' COMPANY (April 2004) '[a] colourful first novel...what begins as an erotic fairy tale grows into an exploration of love and loss, sexuality and innocence, friendship and solitude...Shanghvi's loose, poetic style, [is] cut with a dash of magical realism...Shanghvi's story has eloquent insights into the nature of love.' -- Su Lin Lewis TLS (5.3.04) '[a] magical debut..Madcap characters shimmy across the pages, throwing out slangy witticisms with insouciant charm, but underneath the glitz the mood is mythically melancholy. Delicious.' -- Eithne Farry ELLE (April '04) 'A gently magical taste of India.' MIRROR (12.3.04) 'the novel is beautifully paced, exploring huge themes - fate, death, lasting love, vengeance, ambition, acceptance and - via tiny moments - the trickiness of life. The author twists words mercilessly, his choice of language veering between delicate beauty and raucous irreverence. And there's some extraordinarily fantastic, surprising writing about sexual organs: read it and weep.' **** -- Angela Jackson INK 'The magical tale of an Indian family dealing with love, loss and long forgotten secrets.' *** HEAT (27 March - 2 April) '[an] exuberhant performance, part of the post-magical realist trend in Indo-English fiction - with its fantasy, pastiche and satire, and tendency to turn every seed of imagintion into a towering tree...Shanghvi's extravagant prose teems with adjectives, adverbs [and] personifications.' -- Aamer Hussein INDEPENDENT (9.4.04) 'A mixture of magical realism, tragi-comedy, and prose poetry, his debut novel sweeps readers into a tale as old as time, populated by eccentrically beautiful characters...A sure shot on the best-seller list.' GOOD BOOK GUIDE (1/4/04) 'A promising debut novel, THE LAST SONG OF DUSK is a vivid picture of love and loss in colonial India.' -- Jay Richardson THE LIST (1.4.04) 'the arrival of a new voice likely to cause a stir in the style of the impressive debuts of Salman Rushdie, Kiran Desai and Hari Kunzru.' WESTERN DAILY PRESS (27.3.04) '[a] magical tale...The whole book sparkles with energy, and is by turns cheeky, funny and achingly sad. Reading it is like appreciating a highly skilled tightrope walker: one false move and the whole edifice of magic and invention would come crashing down, but Shanghvi is a sure-footed narrator and never falters. He is not afraid to have his characters talk of karma and dharma, kismet, love and the meaning of life, in passages of tender lyricism that make this a story to treasure.' -- Joanna Hines LITERARY REVIEW (May 2004) 'The guru of sex' TIME OF INDIA 'Feral, hednoistic ...a refreshing dawn to the genre of the new Indian novella' THE ASIAN AGE 'A compelling read...told in lush, erotic prose . .. ' INDIA ABROAD 'Shanghvi's magical realism is for the reader who can suspend disbelief and is carried away on the wings of his words and astounding imagination ...(his) words hold everything together as they do a divine dance page after page' SUNDAY MID-DAY 'the author writes most beautifully and atmospherically.' -- Glen Baker MORNING STAR (19.4.04) 'LAST SONG [OF DUSK] displays a vivid and fertile imagination, combined with a deeply romantic sensibility.' Veena (May issue) 'THE LAST SONG OF DUSK is one novel every self respecting book worm will want to experience.' DESI (1.6.04)
Author Bio
A born and bred Bombaywallah, Shanghvi was educated in India, England and America. He has written for The Sunday Times of India, Elle and the San Francisco Chronicle. Born in 1977, he has an MA in International Journalism and an MS In Mass Communications, and has worked as a chef, a kennel boy, and a storyteller.