The Cripple and His Talismans

by Anosh Irani

Book Overview

Prepare to enter a world where the norms of human behavior--even the rules governing time and gravity--are set on their heads. This dark and wry fable begins with the narrator waking up and discovering he is missing an arm. He has no idea how he lost it or how to find it--but as he searches the chaotic, often surreal streets of Bombay, he meets an absurd and marvelous cast of characters who offer him clues: a woman selling rainbows, a beggar living...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1565124561
• ISBN13: 9781565124561
• Release Date: April 2005
• Publisher: Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill
• Length: 244 Pages
• Weight: 0.95 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 5.6" x 8.4"

Customer Reviews

Hilarious

I love this book. Anosh Irani has a wonderful wit. I've never laughed so much from a book.

An odd tale of Bombay

Many books are referred to as "darkly comic." In this case, it's true. It's a dark tale but one that is genuinely funny. An unnamed narrator goes on a quest for his missing arm through the dark, impoverished, violent and funny side of Bombay. The journey is episodic as the wealthy narrator encounters odd characters, wakes in new situations and generally moves through an absurdist world that reveals a Bombay he didn't know, as it also reveals a self he didn't know - or at least, he had been avoiding. In the end, it is a quest for himself. Or perhaps it's more accurate to say a harmonization of himself through the discovery of a strangely and wonderfully contradictory Bombay.