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The Shadow Lines
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| Price: | £15.99 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Delivery. Details |
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Average customer review:
Product Details
- Amazon Sales Rank: #1398025 in Books
- Published on: 2008-02-27
- Original language: English
- Binding: Hardcover
- 288 pages
Editorial Reviews
Synopsis
Shows how language should be used, and how a novel should be written.
Customer Reviews
An little known gem
For any novel, but especially for a first novel, this is an extraordinary achievement. Dealing in history, human frailty, the lenses of memory and self deception, the sources of identity and belonging: this is a brief epic which is never grandiose, and always close to human experience.
The inner world of the narrator is so pitch perfect it hurts. You can feel him growing, and the people around him too. Each and every personality in it is startlingly realised. The narrative forces its way on, covering a great emotional range. The style is impeccable - restrained, precise and beautiful or harsh and the situation demands.
I suppose that no one reading this review will believe quite how good The Shadow Lines is - and apparently his other books don't quite reach the same standard. This, however, is a great, neglected work of modern literature.
Beyond Shadow lines
The Shadow lines is not what it appears to be. But as one slowly moves through this story spanning generations and continents, one feels a familiar old pull within. that of memory, identity, which in this ever changing world is constantly in a flux. The protagonist is a boy who grows up admiring his cousin Tridib, who with the power of words (and maps) enlivens this little boy's life. Tridib shares a bond with May, his father's English friend's daughter. Meanwhile, our protagonist too grows up listening to his cousin Ila's tales from all over the world, thanks to her IFS officer.
Between all these complex relationship is grandmother, who lives in nostlagia of that enchanted childhood she had in Dhaka before partition. The book moves slowly beautifully and conflict makes the incision at the right points. The complex web of relationships, of love, honour, friendship is cruelly broken when riots break out.
Beautifully written, the book gives a fresh perspective to those who have faced political conflicts
