One Point Two Billion

(Paperback)

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In this remarkable collection of stories, set across eleven Indian states, Mahesh Rao, author of the acclaimed novel The Smoke is Rising illuminates this vast and complex nation. Moving from the megacities to a remote detention camp, and from the canals of rural Punjab to an exclusive Delhi club, we encounter disparate worlds where the bonds of history and tradition strain against new realities. An anxious woman seeks work in a yoga retreat, a family feud plays out against the background of horrifying discovery in Bundelkhand, and a man living in a tea plantation high up in the Nigiri Hills realises he is in love with his daughter in law. Mahesh Rao's writing has drawn comparisons with E. M. Forster and with the gentle humour of R. K. Narayan. Richly textured and haunting, One Point Two Billion reveals the impossible array of private lives and complex social layers existing in an uneasy balance in contemporary India.

Author Bio

Mahesh Rao was born and grew up in Nairobi, Kenya. His debut novel, The Smoke is Rising (also published by Daunt Books), won the Tata First Novel Award, and was shortlisted for the Shakti Bhatt Prize and the Guardian's Not the Booker Prize (voted by readers). His short stories have been shortlisted for the 2013 Bridport Prize, the 2012 Commonwealth Short Story Prize and the 2010 Zoetrope: All-Story Short Fiction Contest. Rao lives in Mysore, India.