Haunting Bombay
Non-series
Shilpa
Agarwal
Soho Press (Hardcover)
ISBN-10: 1-56947-558-X (156947558X)
ISBN-13: 978-1-56947-558-4 (9781569475584)
Publication Date: April 2009
List Price: $24.00
Synopsis (from
the publisher): Having lost her mother during Partition, Pinky Mittal
has been raised by her devoted grandmother in a bungalow atop Malabar
Hill, Bombay’s former colonial enclave, still an exclusive
neighbourhood. The home is shared by her extended family: an alcoholic
uncle, a scheming aunt, a coterie of loyal – and deceitful-
servants, and three boy cousins, the eldest of whom Pinky loves.
Every evening before sunset a certain bathroom door in their home is
carefully locked and bolted. The reason for this is never explained to
Pinky. One stifling summer evening, she defies her family by unbolting
the door, and in so doing accidentally unleashes the vengeful ghost of
a drowned infant.
As the monsoons engulf the city, the ghost terrorizes the Mittal
family. To exorcise it, three generations must struggle to come to
terms with a secret that has haunted them for thirteen years entailing
hidden shame, forbidden love, and a call for absolute sacrifice.
A richly evocative tale that conveys the reader from the heights of
Malobar Hill to the depths of the city’s underworld, Haunting Bombay, enlightens,
enthrals, and astonishes as it guides us through a world of unexpected
possibilities.
Review: While
still in draft form, Shilpa Agarwal’s debut novel received a
First Words Literary Prize for South Asian Writers. A beautifully
crafted mystery of amazing depth, sensitivity, and complexity, it is as
haunting in its style as in its substance.
The matriarchal Mittal family – a controlling grandmother, her
philandering son, devious daughter-in-law, and their 14-year-old twin
boys, 17-year-old son, and a 13-year old displaced niece named Pinky
– live with a handful of servants of varying loyalties in a
well-to-do gated enclave in Bombay. The ghost of an infant girl lives
there as well, by day quiet and harmless, by night covertly locked away
in the family bathroom until one evening Pinky in a fit of pique
unwittingly releases her to wreak havoc on the family’s lives
while avenging her untimely and mysterious death. The mystery that
spins out so tantalizingly in the compelling story of the interactions
of the family, its servants, and the spirit is how and why the
weeks-old baby drowned in a wash bucket of bath water. And who owned
"the disembodied hand [that] appeared out of nowhere, pushing her down,
down, down into the thick glassy water?" Ah, but the baby’s ghost
knows, so it seeks revenge, striking terror into the entire household
with its awesome displays of psychic power.
The ghost is vulnerable, however, and when the family members discover
how it can be tamed, they try to trap it. But the plan is more easily
conceived than carried through when weak links in the chain of family
members break, enabling the ghost to live another day and in another
way, leaving lives broken, the family turned topsy-turvy, and the
baby’s murderer exposed. In reaching its surprise ending the
story ebbs and flows with information about the characters past lives
seamlessly revealed while they struggle with their current situations.
One has become an alcoholic, another is a lesbian. One has drowned "the
purple sunbird who nested in the greenery of their garden." One vies
for control of the household while another refuses to relinquish it.
One is banished, one runs away after being raped, another is kidnapped,
three are love-struck, and a few see the ghost while others can only
observe its wrathful antics. All have memories to deal with, pleasant
or not, even the teenager who finds most things, "Bor-ing."
Besides developing an outstanding story filled with family tensions and
dark drama, Agarwal holds her reader’s interest with passages of
history and biting social commentary and references to Indian
mythology, deities, and regional superstitions. She can evoke laughter
as well as tears, fear as well as serenity, and she is masterful at
springing surprises at just the right moment. Life comes alive in her
kitchens where: "Onions, garlic, and ginger stood in piquant piles,
freshly chopped and grated. A pan of oil simmered on the stove, black
mustard seeds popping over the edge in sharp staccatos." Life is at
risk in a hospital where: "An indolent ceiling fan lethargically
stirred germs from one cot to its neighbour and back." Life is hell in
the red-light district where the doorway to a brothel "reeked of waste:
garbage festered in the corners with swarms of flies lifting up and
settling back down in unison, vomit swam in the gutters, and cigarette
butts littered the entrance," while, inside, the girls with their
jasmine-scented hair serviced a clientele of "exceptionally hispid men
whose breath smelled of rancid mutton." And life is not much better for
the shipbreaking workers who lived "amidst the grave-yard of leaking
barrels, open fires, and hazardous waste that possessed the coastline,"
and where, for the boss, "[E]verything was as it should be."
Full of insights into life, death, and the beyond in India, Shilpa
Agarwal’s Haunting Bombay
is a memorable novel of exceptional merit.
Special thanks to M. Wayne Cunningham (mw_cunningham@telus.net) for contributing his review of Haunting Bombay and to Soho Press for providing a copy of the book for this review.
Review Copyright © 2009 — M. Wayne Cunningham — All Rights Reserved — Reprinted with Permission
Have you read Haunting Bombay? How would you rate it?
Mysteries in this series ...
Haunting Bombay
Soho Press (Hardcover), April 2009
ISBN-10: 1-56947-558-X (156947558X)
ISBN-13: 978-1-56947-558-4 (9781569475584)
Omnimystery keywords for Haunting Bombay ...
Location(s) referenced: Bombay, India.
