The renowned Indian author of Why I Am a Hindu delivers “a splendidly readable novel of memorable characters and complexity” (The Washington Post).
A highly motivated, idealistic American student, Priscilla Hart had come to India to volunteer in women’s health programs. Instead, she wound up dead. Had an indiscriminate love affair spun out of control? Had a disgruntled, deeply jealous colleague been pushed to the edge? Or was she simply the innocent victim of a riot that had exploded in that fateful year of 1989 between Hindus and Muslims?
Experimenting masterfully with narrative form in this brilliant tour de force, internationally acclaimed novelist Shashi Tharoor chronicles the mystery of Priscilla Hart’s death through the often contradictory accounts of a dozen or more characters, all of whom relate their own versions of the events surrounding her killing. Like his two previous novels, Riot probes and reveals the richness of India, and is at once about love, hate, cultural collision, the ownership of history, religious fanaticism, and the impossibility of knowing the truth.
“A multilayered narrative that sheds light on many contemporary issues on history, politics and culture of India . . . A love story of cross-cultural beings.” —Rupkatha Journal
“A thoughtful, sociologically precise novel about the religious tensions racking the subcontinent . . . Tharoor’s story is about a larger topic than the undoing of one innocent American—it is about the potential fragmentation of the secular Indian republic, a tragedy in the making.” —Publishers Weekly
“Tharoor has once again proved his formidable intellectual prowess and creative acumen . . . A story of ignited passions and communal violence between Hindus and Muslims.” —Taylor & Francis Online
