Pages Stained with Blood
Indira Goswami
(Translated from Assamese by Pradip Acharya)
Katha
158 pages/Rs 150
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Blood, the proclaimed staining agent, has little to do with why this novel makes me see red. No, this winner of the Bharatiya Jnanpith Award 2001 is infuriating for other, somewhat better concealed reasons.
It has to do in the main with its viewpoint. The story is told from the perspective of an outsider who substitutes knowledge for insight, compassion for feeling, communication for belonging and observation for experience. It is the story of Delhi circa 1984, but it could well be the story of any modern-day metropolis in search of the historical city in any society. It never becomes the narrator